


A Letter from Xadia

by CEO_of_Angst



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Blood, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Everyone is morally gray, F/F, F/M, Family Drama, Family Issues, Feels, Fluff, Gen, Humor, M/M, Mild Gore, Other, Plot thickens for no reason, Post-Season/Series 02, Queerplatonic Relationships between ocs, Rayllum, Slow Burn, The rating is because of swearing and that's it, There's a ton of angst, Updates are coming they're just slow, You Have Been Warned, it did get angstier than intended but that's just how life works, painful and horrible pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2020-08-09 23:31:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20125651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CEO_of_Angst/pseuds/CEO_of_Angst
Summary: People you've known for a lifetime can change without you even noticing. And as conflict in Xadia rises, something as simple as a letter can unleash events no one was expecting.Aka my own version of s3 with added angst and family drama. Also assasins friends.





	1. New beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> So ,they approached Xadia slowly, careful not to disturb Sol Regam as they walked forward.
> 
> Everything was good now. Or so they thought…
> 
> Note:FYI after the season 3 trailer I have to announce this is an Au, it was always an Au. It may not correlate to cannon but I already have the outline done.

Rue opened up her door to see a bunch of mail on the floor. She wasn't surprised, as she was expecting her primal history report card. She sorted through her mail and saw a letter. "Who could it be?" Rue asked.

* * *

"Dear Rue,

I need your help with a mission. Your sister went on her first assassination mission three weeks ago. Nobody has returned to town and we have no idea what happened. I have information that Runaan used his protection spell. They're in danger and I need your help finding them. I know you're still angry at Runaan and I for hiding your parents' disappearance from you, but we need your help. Rayla needs your help.

Sincerely,

Tinker"

* * *

"Damn right I'm still angry! But I have to get as much information out of you as I can. No matter how much I've grown to hate you! I need to trust you, even if my gut is telling me not to." Rue mumbled out loud as if Tinker could hear her.

Rue turned to the unfinished assignment that sat on her desk. "Wasn't going to finish that anyway, might as well turn it in!" She told herself.

She packed her bags and ran to the other part of the campus. Knocking on the door, she yelled "Ryndel! Get your lazy ass out of bed and answer the door!"

"What?!" A confused Sunfire elf shouted while answering the door.

"I finished my part of the project. I have to go home. Can you turn the project in?" Rue asked.

"Sure. Go do your thing!" Ryndel said as he took the assignment out of Rue's hands.

Rue walked to the academy's stables, the place where magical animals usually stayed.

The earth Arcanum was all about the nature and being one with it. To become an archmage, you had to understand the fauna of the land. Understanding other magical beings and their magic was essential and because of that, each Earthblood mage was given a magical companion, to understand the Arcanum better and have a deeper connection with it.

Jade was Rue's companion, a wooden horse. Among other powers, wooden horses could use the roots of the plants nearby to travel at quick speeds.

With a wood horse, a journey to Ayledell would take you only a day instead of a week.

Rue wasn't allowed to go off campus more than twice during the school year. But this was important! Screw the rules! The semester was ending anyway. She could be absent for the week for all they knew. She made sure to lock her dorm’s door so nobody would know she was even gone.

As Rue was getting up on horseback she whispered. "Let's go home, Jade. Let's go to Ayledell!"

And they were off.

* * *

At the border things weren't that great either. Rayla and Callum had just come across Sol Regem, the dragon who guarded the border ever since Thunder was slayed.

"What are we going to do?" Callum asked in mild panic.

"We need to distract him somehow..." Rayla began thinking of a plan.

But just before they could come up with a plan Zym flew up to Sol Regam.

"Zym no! We need you in one piece!" yelled Callum desperately.

"Lower the volume a little, we don't want to be in more trouble than we already are, loud mage!" Rayla warned.

"Fine." Callum whispered, chucking softly at the old nickname.

Zym approached the older dragon curiously.

Sol Regam was furious. He couldn't let a human into Xadia. If the human used dark magic in Xadia, it would harm the magical creatures, and without them, the Xadian ecosystem would collapse. But Zym was the dragon prince. Sol Regem had to listen, as much as he didn't want to. The baby dragon proceeded to explain all his adventures in an enthusiastic voice.

"What are they doing?" Callum asked as he saw the dragons muttering gibberish.

"It's dragonic. I think Zym is going to get us out of this situation." Rayla responded.

Sol Regem wasn't that impressed. But after hearing of how Callum saved the dragon back in the human kingdoms and him choosing primal magic over dark magic, he supposed he could let them go.

And just as she said that, Zym flew to them chattering happily. Rayla looked at the older sun dragon. She still didn't know if he approved of them going to Xadia with a human or not. But she had to take the chance. If the elder dragon did, in fact, approved or at least allowed them to pass through Xadia, he could always change his mind.

"Let's try to go. I think Zym explained everything to him," Rayla voiced her thought process.

So, they approached Xadia slowly, careful not to disturb Sol Regem as they walked forward.

Everything was good now. Or so they thought…

* * *

As they continued into Xadia, nighttime fell. So, they decided to stop for the day at a nearby cave.

The moon was almost full. It was almost a month since they left the castle. A month ago they never thought they would end up traveling on a mission to stop the war, to save everything from turning to chaos, trying to make the world a better place for everyone they loved, to make unlikely friends among the way.

As Rayla watched the moon, she was reminded of the full moon that was approaching. Her powers at their highest. Last full moon, she was going to do her mission, but she hesitated, disappointed her team, and as much as it hurt to think back at the events, she didn’t regret it. Being an assassin just wasn’t for her. But after returning Zym to his mother, she had all the time in the world to discover how she could use her skills for good.

Right now, Zym was their only hope at a somewhat peaceful life.

Callum on the other hand hadn't even been in Xadia for more than an hour and he was already fascinated by the amazing magic surrounding him everywhere. Rayla was right, magic here was like nature back home. It didn't feel out of place at all.

He wanted to know more spells already, but it was late at night. He was tired. And he couldn’t just explore the area without knowing what dangers were out there.

Zym was in his element. He flew from tree to tree, scaring Xadian birds out of their nests.

But as the little dragon was playing around in his natural habitat, he missed landing on a tree branch. He fell to the ground loudly.

Rayla and Callum ran immediately to their companion. "What did I say about flying! You have to practice more before flying around without a care in the world!" Rayla lectured the baby dragon.

"Is he hurt?" asked Callum.

"Let me see…" said Rayla as she inspected the little dragon. "Looks like a broken wing, this little fella sure won't fly around for a while," Rayla responded.

"How far away from a town are we?" asked Callum.

"We're about a day away from Ayledell." Rayla answered. "Why?" She asked.

"We can probably find help there," Callum said.

"I like your optimistic spirit, but that's not gonna happen." Rayla said. After staring into space for a few seconds she continued. "Do you remember when people in the village near the cursed caldera realised I was an elf? Same thing will happen if you go into town now."

"But I've got a good disguise!" Callum protested.

"No matter how good your disguise is, it won't work. Ayledell is a diverse town. You're gonna stick out in the crowd!" Rayla pointed out.

"Then what are we gonna do?" Callum asked.

"_You _ are going to make sure Zym doesn't get himself in even more trouble. I will go into town so I can find a healing potion." Rayla concluded.

"Does sky magic have healing spells? Maybe I can learn it so we don't need to go into town?" Callum suddenly asked.

"I don't know! Last time I checked I wasn't a Skywing _ or _a mage!" Rayla grunted.

"Aren't you guys taught that in school?" Callum insisted.

"No, because I'm not a mage. If I was, I would." Rayla claimed.

Suddenly a twinkle sparkled into Callum's eyes. "_Lujanne! We have emergency illusions!" _he thought as he started looking through his backpack.

"What are you doing?" Rayla questioned as she watched Callum throw everything he had in his backpack on the floor.

"I just remembered that you're not the only one who requested illusions from Lujanne..." he recalled as he continued going through his backpack.

"And what's an illusion going to do?! Zym isn't going to get healed with one!" Rayla stressed.

"No, he's not, but if I can find the right one I can find a disguise!" Callum explained.

“Go right ahead. But if anyone finds out, it’s not my fault you died!” Rayla reminded him, her protective tone almost slipping through.

"I won’t." Callum promised.


	2. Elven secrets and lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Callum are you okay? You seem distracted," Rayla asked out of genuine concern. She had to whisper the question as she kept looking for that healing potion. He nodded affirmingly, in a way he was happy they were in a crowd where he couldn't speak, that way he didn’t have to truly lie to her. Even if he was still lying, at least he wasn’t telling the biggest lie of his life "I’m fine."

It was late at night, that much he knew. Rayla and Zym were already asleep, but Callum wasn’t. His mind was running errands. His thoughts couldn’t just leave him alone. 

_ What if in fact someone, somehow, could tell his illusion was just that, an illusion? _ He thought about the possibility as if his life depended on it, and to him, it did. _ Could Moonshadow elves tell when there was an illusion around? _ Rayla couldn’t while they visited Lujanne. _ Was it because she wasn’t a mage? _ _Could he even stand a chance to run or fight with his two spells if someone found out? _

His overthinking was getting the better of him.

_ What if someone found out he was a human and they killed him? Would the mission be over? _ The whole point of getting Zym to his mother was to show that humans _weren’t _ vile creatures. That they _ could _ collaborate with elves. That the whole point of a war was _ stupid. _

_If he... died, then Rayla would have to do it all alone, the war would start and he would have broken his promise._ Most importantly, Ez would have lost _every_ family member besides aunt Amaya at the age of _ten_. He _couldn’t_ let that happen.

Lujanne was the guardian of the Moon Nexus for a reason. Her illusions fooled almost anyone. He _ had _ to calm down. But he couldn’t. Not when every negative outcome of his actions was running through his head. His mind was getting the better of him and he knew it.

It always did. Ever since he was a little kid. He never knew _ why_. But he knew _ one _ thing, _ it wasn’t right. _

He didn’t know how late it was but they needed to be up at sunrise so they could arrive in Ayledell by sunset. He didn't know _ why _ they needed to be there at such a specific time, but he _ trusted _ Rayla. After all, she knew Xadia better than him, that was for sure. Before he could begin to overthink again, he heard a voice.

“Yer thinking too loud again!” Rayla observed, her eyes still closed.

"Oh, you’re.. you’re awake!" Callum realised, still pacing nervously as he had been doing for the past thirty minutes. "It’s hard not to be when you’re walking around the place like you’re contemplating murder! What’s wrong?" Rayla said in a tired sarcastic tone but somehow her compassion was still visible. "It’s just… I’ve… I’ve been thinking about what you said and…." Callum was looking down at his feet, not knowing how to continue his sentence.

"You’ll be_ fine,_ Callum. We won't be in Ayledell for long anyway. Just don’t speak, your accent’s horrible!" Rayla teased as she turned to face Callum.

_ "Ya mean like this" _Callum tried to impersonate an elven accent but failed terribly.  
Rayla facepalmed. "Yes, like that. You stick out like a sore thumb with your bad accent!" Then she yawned and sat back down."Stop overthinking and go to bed, we have a long day ahead of us," Her tone was different than the usual sarcasm filled Rayla, this time it was worried, almost comforting in a way.

__

Rue had just arrived in Ayledell. It was sometime past noon when he left Jade in the forest nearby. Wild wood horses were a rare sight. If people saw one they would know someone was visiting. And to be frank_, who else could it be? _

Ayledell was a medium-sized town. But most of the townspeople were craftsmen and warriors. There were not a lot of mages born in Ayledell. And the ones that were, didn’t come to visit often.

Rue walked forward to the town's entrance. The streets were full of people. She blamed herself because she didn’t look for illusions in the school's shop before she left. But she didn't even think about it at that moment. All she could think about was that her little sister was in danger.

She walked forward heading for the old cottage she used to live in. The place brought her good and bad memories all the same.

When she arrived, she opened the door only to see that no one was home. "I don't know what games you're playing, Tinker. But I'll find out... soon." She talked to herself, yes, but she had the impression that he was listening. Even if that wasn’t the case.

She looked around the cottage. "Maybe I'll find more information in Tinker’s office." She theorized as she opened the oak door. In this exact office, Rue found the letter their parents sent them when they ran away. She was visiting that week, she couldn't find a good pen to write back to her friends back in Lunaris, so she decided to search for one in Tinker's office. And there was the letter, in the second drawer. Rue might not be 100 percent sure he hid them from her and her sister, but she blames him anyway.

Was she too paranoid? Maybe. Did she care? Not one bit.

That drawer was now empty. But she came here to search for any information she could find, so she started searching the other drawers.

The third was full of letters. All from her parents. That bastard has been hiding more things than she thought. Though she couldn’t find anything else.

But the weird thing was that the letters dated back to over three years ago. It was odd for sure, but she didn’t have a lot of time on her hands so she decided not to question it. She put them in her backpack. If she did, in fact, find Rayla, she didn’t want to keep them secret from her. Rue searched for any other information but couldn’t find any.

__

Sunrise was beautiful in Xadia and even though he never saw something like this before Callum couldn't appreciate any of it. All he wanted to do was go back to sleep. He only caught about 5 hours of sleep the previous night and even though he knew it was his fault, he blamed everything on his stubborn brain. His mind just couldn’t give him a break, could it? He was so anxious about trying the illusion, to the point his hands shook while holding the necklace.

Here they go again. They being the spiraling thoughts that wouldn't leave him alone no matter how much he tried."_What if the illusion wasn’t a Skywing Elf one?" _"Stop it!" he internally shouted. Nothing."_How would he explain the fact that he can do sky magic while he’s not a Skywing elf?"_

But before he could start overthinking even more than he already was, Rayla interrupted his train of thought. "Come on, sad prince, put on the necklace and let’s go. We have no time to waste."

He looked at the necklace in his hands anxiously. His mind was full of doubt. It took everything in him not to listen to the negative thoughts.

But he took a deep breath and tried on the illusion. It was a weird feeling. Mostly because he didn’t feel any different.

He stood in front of the river they’ve been following. His reflection was no different than it usually was. Did the spell even work?

"Your disguise worked if that’s what you’re asking yourself. That’s how illusions work. You don’t see a difference but others do."

"So what am I?" Callum asked. 

"Skywing." She told him, slightly moving forward. "Handsome one at that." 

She kept the last part to herself, they didn’t have time for chitchat.

"Now come on, we’ve got a long day of traveling in front of us," She said as she held a sleeping Zym in her arms and walked forward in the direction of Ayledell.

__

How many things has he been hiding? She didn’t know. All she knew was that even though she didn’t trust him one bit. She had to find him.

He always gave off bad vibes, but she thought it was just her younger self not wanting to trust anyone other than Runaan after her parents joined the dragon guard, leaving the 4-year-old and her younger sister in the care of her uncle. Tinker joined the family a few years after. Rue had a gut feeling he wasn’t someone to trust when she first met him. She always thought that her gut feeling was wrong, but maybe after all these years, it wasn't. All her childhood she felt like he was against her.

When Runaan started training Rayla, she would remain home, alone with Tinker. But he was always in his office, she wasn’t allowed to go in and she would get bored very easily. She wanted Runaan to train her too, but she was a mage, not an assassin. Nobody could train her and she had no one to talk about the spells she learned from books with. She tried to tell Tinker, but he didn’t pay attention to her. 

That's when she started hating him. Rue thought she hated being a mage for a long time until she joined Lunaris Academy two years ago. What she hated was being ignored just because she was different, not magic.

When Rayla came back from training, she would actually be fascinated by her sister’s new spells. But Tinker didn’t agree. He thought untrained magic was too dangerous for two little kids and they would get hurt in the process. Rue wasn’t allowed to practice magic anymore, only learn the theory. She hated that. So in the night, they would pretend they were asleep and an hour later they would sneak out the window into the forest near the house, train together and play hide and seek on full moons. It was fun. Until Tinker caught them one night.

This house was giving her too many memories, and she had to concentrate on her current mission.

Rue had nothing to disguise herself with and she couldn’t find any illusions around the house. "I should have brought more stuff…"

If anyone saw her in town, she would try to lie, and if that didn't work, tying them to a tree and running away wouldn't be that bad of an idea.

She left the cottage with no idea where to find Tinker. She wandered around the town but found no clue of where Tinker could be. 

Why would the bastard call her here if he didn't want to meet? It didn’t make any sense. Well, _ she didn’t need him anyway, _ she told herself. She could find her sister on her own. Of course she could. But she needed to stock on supplies first. A few illusions couldn’t hurt, right? Plus, she was running out of food for Jade.

She decided to go to one of the potion shops first. By now, it was close to sunset. The streets were busy, the shop area even busier. She looked through the shelves. The first thing she saw was a healing potion. She had never been that good at healing magic but she was learning, she saw a few interesting healing spells in one of her school books and she really wanted to learn it, potions would definitely help her figure out that side of Earthblood magic. In theory, the spell would work as healing from the inside out, helping both the body and the soul. Which was hard for her to grasp.

Even so, she bought the potions, along with a few illusions. Rue just hoped nobody would recognize her before she could use her illusions and start searching for her sister...and Tinker.

Rue started walking to another shop to buy food when she bumped into someone. "Are you kidding me?!" she internally screamed.

"I’m sorry for… Rue?' A familiar voice seemed to whisper.

__

They were very close to the town. It was almost sunset. Callum was exhausted. They’d been walking all day, and they never took a break. 

"Can’t we stop for a second? My feet are killing me!" He mumbled out of breath.

"Callum, we only have about a few minutes of walking left." Rayla pointed out as she continued walking. Callum didn’t respond. "Now will you stop whining and keep walking, we need to get there before sunset or we’ll have to wait all night to get supplies," Rayla said in her usual sarcastic tone, but her voice seemed more breathy than usual. The exhaustion was getting to her too, though it was not as bad as Callum’s.

"Why?" Callum asked. He’d been thinking about why they needed to arrive now through all their journey today. He needed an answer, otherwise, he would think Rayla just wanted to make fun of him for his lack of strength.

"The gates close at sunset on a full moon. A few years back, some traveling Moonshadow elves tried to steal all the supplies we had for the winter. They were caught by Runaan and a few others." Rayla answered still being fully aware of where they were going.

"Wait, you live here?" He asked. Callum shouldn’t really be surprised, after all, he didn’t know a thing about Xadia.

"Yes. So we need to be out as soon as we arrive. You know what my mission was, right? If I returned with no trace of the others, I will be asked questions. And sure I can fool people, but _ you _ can't." Rayla stressed.

"We’re almost there. Remember, no talking." Rayla reminded him as she put Zym in Callum’s backpack. "I’m sorry buddy but I don't want anyone finding you. We could get in a lot of trouble. Okay?" Zym chirped sadly but obeyed nonetheless.

They walked towards the town. They needed to be fast but they would stick out if they just started running to town - wouldn't they?

The shops were full of people and Callum prayed he wasn’t discovered. He felt so anxious he couldn’t even admire the unique Xadian architecture of the town. The different coloured woods the shops were made of, the tall trees that reached the clouds, the pathways made of minerals Callum only wished to know the name of, the beauty of the unknown that would normally bring the artist in him so much happiness. But no. Instead of feeling like he was in the middle of a fantasy come to reality, he felt his stomach turning upside down only at the thought of being found, of the war starting, of being held in a cell because he was only human, of losing everyone he loved. And now that his brother wasn’t here, he wondered what would happen to him. Would he find out about the failed mission in time? Would he suffer the same faith?

"Callum are you okay? You seem distracted," Rayla asked out of genuine concern. She had to whisper the question as she kept looking for that healing potion. He nodded affirmingly, in a way he was happy they were in a crowd where he couldn't speak, that way he didn’t have to truly lie to her. Even if he was still lying, at least he wasn’t telling the biggest lie of his life "I’m fine."

Rayla kept looking and looking but she couldn’t find what she wanted. "Excuse me, ma'am, need help with finding something?" One of the vendors asked Rayla kindly."I was looking for a healing potion. You would happen to have one of those, right?" she asked the man. "I’m sorry we sold the last one of those. Maybe try the other shops. I’m sure you’ll find what you need." The vendor responded and turned to the other customers.

"Thank you for your help," She said as she gestured for Callum to follow her.

She looked at every other store but she couldn’t find anything remotely helpful. "Alright, we need to head to the medical store on the other side of town. A potion would have healed Zym immediately but bandages are the next best thing."

They continued walking out of the shop area. But Callum suddenly stopped walking."Zym is moving a lot I think he wants out." Callum whispered so only Rayla could hear him. "Alright, we need to hurry."

Rayla began walking at a faster pace, she wasn’t running but it was obvious she was in a hurry. She couldn’t allow Zym to be found. It would blow their whole cover and she knew the humans near the cursed caldera not being fans of her was nothing compared to how much elves usually hated humans. Be it because of dark magic or not. They couldn’t take any risks. Her thoughts were clouding her mind and she couldn’t even pay attention to where she was going. Lost in her thoughts, she lost her sense of direction and bumped into someone.

She began to apologize to get it all over with but then she saw a familiar face "I’m sorry for… Rue?"

__

Before all the emotions could get to her, Rue’s initial thought was "_Well this was easy." _Her sister stood right in front of her, unharmed.

The paranoia was the initial response "Is this a trick? An illusion? Why would it be and why wouldn’t it be?" But she didn’t pay attention to her mind overreacting, instead, she focused on the overwhelming happiness that came from her sister being well and most importantly _ alive. _

"I thought I lost you too. First mum and dad ran away, then we may have lost Runaan, and I thought I lost you too!" The words slipped out of her as she held Rayla into a bone-crushing hug for a few seconds and afterward pulled away just as fast.

Rue looked forward. Next to Rayla was a young Skywing elf, about her sister’s age from the looks of it, carrying a stuffy backpack. Her first reaction was to tease her sister "_Skywing elf, huh?" _but something was off. The magical aura this Skywing was giving her didn’t seem Skywing at all. Yes, the arcanum was sky, that was for sure. But something was off and she couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

"I see you brought a new friend from your mission." She decided to say.

Rayla didn’t know what to say. She didn’t expect to bump into her sister out of all people. She could lie to the townspeople, sure. But Rue knew her too well. She would know if she tried to lie. She didn’t even pay attention to what Rue said about Runaan. She had to make up a lie fast. And make it seem like the truth. And to be fair, deep inside, she knew that the chance of her group surviving was small. Runaan was the last one she saw, and she had no idea what happened to the rest of the group.

Callum could tell Rayla was conflicted, he was too. It seemed like all his thoughts had come to reality and that scared him. He couldn’t think of a solution so he trusted Rayla to come up with one. And she did…by asking another question.

"I did… What are you doing in town by the way, shouldn’t you be at school?" Rayla just dodged a bullet, sometimes she was happy her brain worked the way it did. She looked at Callum with relief.

"Oh well, let’s just say I missed home, and I needed to get a healing potion for a spell I need for my exams and the school ran out of them." A lie made up on the spot. Rue wasn’t a great liar, so she was proud of herself. She was so focused on her lie going well she didn’t realise Rayla had lied as well.

They continued walking towards the medical store but Rayla realised something."_Rue has a healing potion! We could use it on Zym! _ ** _If_ ** _ she lets me borrow it, that is." _Rayla began thinking more about it."_Which means I have to tell her about the mission." _Zym was growing impatient. He hated it in the backpack as an egg and he for sure still did."_She would find out eventually if Zym decided to get out, which was a high possibility." _She had to tell Rue, there was no other way.

At the beginning of the plan, Rayla thought maybe the potion had instructions but even if it did, she could still mess up and hurt Zym. Rue was a mage, and she was studying this stuff. She would know how to help them.

It was their best shot and Rayla knew that if she explained it properly, everything would be fine. Right?

"So how was the mission?" Rue decided to ask while they continued walking. This... Skywing’s aura was confusing her. She had never felt anything like it. It wasn’t bad... just... different.

"About that. I was thinking we could go back home to discuss that... with fewer people around if you know where I’m getting at?" Rayla propositioned, hoping her plan would work.

"Yeah.. that's.. a very good idea actually." Rue was relieved. At least now nobody else would find out she left.

They continued walking towards the cottage as Callum followed. He trusted Rayla with what she was planning. Even if he didn’t know what it was just yet, though Zym was getting more and more impatient by the minute. He had no idea what to do about it.

When they arrived, there was still no sign of Tinker anywhere, which was good because Rayla didn’t have to tell him as well ... the fewer people found out the better. By the time they arrived Zym had had enough. He opened the backpack with his growing teeth and tried to fly out only to fall on the porch head first. "Zym! What did I tell you!" yelled Rayla in her lecturing voice.

A baby sky dragon... Rue thought the only sky dragon left was the dragon queen. The dragon king and prince have been killed four months ago by the humans. Unless… no it couldn’t be... that's impossible.

Callum didn’t know what to do. Was he allowed to talk now? They probably had to explain how and why the dragon prince was alive, they couldn’t run from this, that was for sure.

"Where did you get a sky dragon from?"Rue asked in a confused tone, still shocked, her brain filled with a million questions.

"It’s.. a long story.." Rayla only hoped the plan would work.

__

It took a while to explain their whole journey, but the sun was still up.

"And now we need the potion to heal Zym’s wing.." Rayla finished.

"I can’t heal him right now. The sun is almost down and we both know we can’t stay here overnight. Could I come with you guys? I see this little guy could use some help learning how to fly and you could use another pair of hands on this mission." Rue explained, she was going to protect her sister and that meant making sure the human doesn’t get close to her.

"Well now, that you know I don’t see why not." To be fair, they could use another mage, one that knew more than two spells, Rayla wanted to add.

"Rayla go get your stuff, we could use more supplies, couldn’t we?" Rue suggested.

"On it!" Rayla headed to her room.

Rue walked into Tinker's office and wrote him a short. 

_ "Hello. I’ve dropped by but I couldn’t find you. Why did you even call me here if you didn’t want to help with this mission? Anyway, I’m rambling and running out of time here. I found Rayla, if that eases your mind. We have other stuff to do right now but we’ll probably go looking for Runaan after we do what we have to do. _

_ -Rue"_

Callum was kind of confused. Too much stuff happened in such a short amount of time. He couldn’t comprehend all of it. Rayla was still gathering supplies when Rue interrupted his thoughts.

"I don’t think we had a proper introduction. I’m Rue. Rayla said your name was Clem? Calem? Or however, you pronounce it," Rue said.

"It’s Callum," He corrected.

"Right..." To be honest she didn’t care much about what his name was. She wanted to make some things clear from the beginning though.

"You should keep something in mind” She began. "Even if you don’t use dark magic that does not mean I trust you. Especially not with my little sister. So I’m going to warn you. If you dare lay a finger on her and hurt her you're going to wish you were never born. Understood?" 

"Understood." Why was all of Rayla's family so scary?

Rue wanted to continue on that note but Rayla came in with another backpack and a bunch of supplies.

"You got everything?" Rue asked.

"I did. What now?" Rayla responded.

"Well, we need to get out of town and I left Jade near Wraldare Forest. So we need to get Jade and then find a safe space for me to heal Zym," Rue advised.

"Okay let’s go," Rayla said as they began walking towards the gates of Ayledell.

Callum was lost in thought and very quiet at the moment. They took Jade, well more like Rue and Rayla did, and were in the search for a good place for hiding and healing Zym. Rue wasn’t his biggest fan when it came to this mission and he didn’t expect her to be, elves and humans never understood each other. Or at least history said so. He and Rayla became close friends fast. They somehow trusted each other from day one even though they shouldn’t have. Rue was only trying to protect her sister, and he understood why. If Ezran was in danger, he would do anything for his little brother.

Rayla was still in a little shock though. She did not expect her sister to come with them but in a way, it made way more logical sense than she thought. If Rue didn’t come with them the trip to Ayledell would have been for nothing. Adding to that, Rue hasn’t seen her in a while and if she thought back to her mission, they may have lost Runaan. Her sister was trying to protect her in whichever way she could. She couldn’t blame her for it.

The gates of the town closed just mere minutes after they left._ "They were lucky they didn’t have to stay the night. Who knows what Tinker would have done when learning about their mission. He wasn’t ... a big fan of humans, yeah that was the best way to put it," _ Rayla thought.

At the moment, the sun was already down. Rue gathered a few fireflies so she could see what she was doing while healing Zym. From the duo’s point of view it might have been odd but she had to do what she had to do, there was no time for gathering wood for a fire. She had to concentrate on the spell because she did not want it to mess up in any shape or form. According to Rayla, they did not have any more healing potions in town and if she messed this one up the dragon prince could get more injured. She didn’t want to be guilty of such a thing. She concentrated, thinking about how healing magic was supposed to work "from the inside out" she visualized it in her head and chanted the spell, potion in one hand and her other hand placed on Zym’s broken wing "_sana ala tuus"_ she closed her eyes preparing for disaster. Instead, Zym chirped happily, swinging his wings in the night air, not flying though as Rayla’s lecture was still in his mind.

She actually did it?! She had been struggling with healing magic for the whole semester. It never went right. But now it did.. It was probably the greater pressure, it had to be. Or the potion. She was never good at healing, there had to be a reason. But she digressed. She healed the dragon prince and they would be going on a trip across Xadia to the dragon queen. She didn’t know what she got herself into. But she was doing it for Rayla.

Speaking of Rayla, she and the human were hugging the little dragon, probably relieved as to the spell going well. She was keeping an eye on him. Humans were vile, dark magic or not. But what she didn’t understand was how he could have unlocked an arcanum. According to history books, few elves were capable of unlocking a second arcanum, let alone humans unlocking one at all.

To say Rayla and Callum were relieved was an understatement. Callum especially. He had been worrying all day and night about Zym and how anyone finding him injured will lead to bad things. He couldn’t even escape it in his dreams. Rayla was just happy the little dragon was healthy, he could use more lecturing though.

While Rue gathered some wood and made a fire, Rayla and Callum had found a cave near the end of the forest. It was cold but since Wraldare was near Moonshadow territory, Rayla wasn’t bothered at all. Rue was indifferent, the only weather that could get on her nerves was the one typical to Skywing territory. 

Callum, on the other hand, was warming himself up to the fire.

Rue knew that if this mission was as long as it seemed to be, she needed to at least get along with the human, even if she didn’t want to. Being hostile to someone you were around almost 24/7 wasn't pleasing so she tried to make small talk.

"So you're a human who can do primal magic?" To be fair, this question has been on her mind for a long time, it was impossible for a human to do magic without a primal stone. How he managed to unlock an arcanum in two weeks of learning magic was just... crazy.

"Well, I only know two spells so far but yes," Callum said through cold teeth. Rue turned to her sister. "I'm not gonna lie to you, Rayla. I thought you had strange friends before but this takes things to a whole other level." 

"Mhmm," Rue’s teasing was nothing new to Rayla, she wasn’t even bothered by it anymore.

Rue then moved towards Jade and Zym who were already asleep near the fire. It was getting darker and they really should go to sleep. "I’ll keep watch for tonight, you two look exhausted." Rue said as she began walking towards the end of the cave though she made a gesture towards Callum so to say: "I’m watching you."

__

The full moon had always been something Rayla had to keep track of. All that power changed her sometimes. Parts of her personality she kept hidden from the world came to light during a full moon. Her family told her the moon made her mischievous. More than usual, that is. So it was no surprise that her mind was up to... well... pranks.

Callum set himself near the fire, the cold air still bothering him. He would think Rayla would be asleep before him, she usually was as he tends to overthink at night, but she wasn’t, she was looking through her backpack for something. Well, that was strange.

And at that moment she disappeared - where did she go?

Then he looked at the sky. A full moon. How could he be so stupid? Where was she and what was she up to?

Before he could even think about it, his vision became black. Or gray, he couldn’t tell the difference. And he wasn’t cold anymore. _ How? What? When? Why? _

"You’re not so cold anymore, huh?" She was still invisible, mind you, and Callum couldn’t see anything anyway. Her voice came out of nowhere - if she didn’t stop scaring him all the time one of these days she might give him a heart attack. 

"You almost made me have a heart attack!" Callum exclaimed as he took the blanket of his face and Rayla turned back to normal form. "You should have seen your face!" She laughed, her voice full of mischief.

"If I were anybody else this whole thing would have made me hate you," Callum commented.

"You love me and you know it"…. Oh shit, she said that out loud. Why did the moon make her like this! "Well maybe I do but that doesn’t mean you can scare me to death!" He exclaimed, not thinking before he spoke.

Rayla wanted to disappear then and there. She made this happen didn’t she? They had a mission, and they had to win a war, they didn’t have time for _ her _feelings.

Callum didn’t even realise what his statement meant, and he didn’t pay it much attention either. But Rayla seemed uncomfortable after his comment, or at least that's how he saw it.

"Thanks for the blanket by the way," He decided to say. "That seems like the only good thing to come out of this prank,doesn’t it?" Rayla managed to say.

"Yeah… also why is Xadia so cold and neither of you feel it?"He asked. "Too cold for your humanity?" She teased. "You’ll never stop teasing me..." He mumbled. 

"To answer your question, we’re close to Moonshadow territory, this is usual for me. Sunfire elves are the only ones who feel as bad in this climate as you. Just wait until we get into Skywing territory. I hope you don't freeze to death though," She explained. She was concerned about the last part but she didn’t let it show, instead her comment seemed sarcastic.

"So do I," To say Callum was terrified now was an understatement.

Afterwards Callum began telling Rayla about all the things he’d seen in Xadia so far and how amazing everything was here, forgetting all his anxious thoughts from earlier as he started drawing the cave and everything he had seen today. "You know I never thought anything about Ayladell was special but you seem to think so," Rayla voiced. "Everything here is just ... different." He said as he continued drawing the town. "I get it... but please don’t stay up late again, I don’t want to deal with a grumpy prince all throughout this mission," He laughed at that. "Sure. I’ll finish this sketch and I'll go to sleep," He assured her.

Rayla took half the blanket for comfort, she might not have needed it to warm herself but she needed it for comfort. Callum didn’t mind, they had been close to each other every day for the past week, in case anything went bad they could wake the other up as fast as possible. They might not have needed that now but Callum was focused on his new sketch and he really didn’t mind, he did not finish the one of Ayledell because his mind wandered to when Zym was healed. The magic erupting from the potion was something he hadn’t seen before. The colours were captivating, and he only wished he had paint so he could capture the image, to show it to Ez when they got back. He wanted to learn more magic, not only for the skill and the positive power it made him feel inside but for its beauty, for the colours.

Callum fell asleep not too long after, his sketchbook falling out of his hand.

__

Rue stood outside the cave watching for danger. She was getting tired as well but she needed to stay awake, she couldn’t lose her sister. But what help was she if her eyes were closing on themselves?!

There had to be a way to make this easier. "_Magic!" _it might not have been the answer to all problems, but it worked now. She looked through her backpack and found her spell book. Maybe she could put a protection spell on the cave. 

She looked through her book for a spell, she never practiced protection spells that worked even if nature was her element. They were always inside when they studied and even with illusion spells to make the room feel like nature, it still wasn’t the same. And there was never a lesson on how to do it on a cave or any type of rock formation. She looked at the page for outside protection spells. "_It’s just the normal protection spell and the specific place in dragonic? This should be easy." _It had to work. She could now sleep for the night. Rue walked towards the entrance of the cave.

She concentrated and chanted the spell. "_Ne sino quis hoc into... spelunca"_. The spell worked as an invisible wall rose from the ground to the ceiling of the cave. Rue knew it worked since the faint colours the wall seemed to have were green and grey.

Rue turned in the others’ direction. Zym and Jade were sleeping soundly next to each other, Zym seemed happy to have another magical friend. She then looked towards our duo. 

They were cuddled up together next to the fire wrapped in Rayla’s old blanket. A book next to the human boy. _ Did he really not care about his life at all?! _She told him not to dare lay a finger on her sister, otherwise she would make his life a living hell. And she wasn’t kidding.

But Rue was exhausted. She told herself that she would deal with this in the morning. But with the knowledge that it was a full moon, she knew her sister wasn't completely innocent either. But Rayla was for sure not the main one to blame. This couldn’t have been her idea. Rayla's standards couldn’t be so low she would consider the human worthy of her affection. Could they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took way too long to write, special thanks to @trixie_moon on discord for being an amazing beta


	3. The ugly truth is bittersweet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Oh," Rayla really thought Rue wouldn’t get it, mostly because she didn’t have that many words to express herself without confessing her feelings. Callum would be a witness to that, and she was sure he didn’t have time for her feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops forgot to put honey in my tea, it tastes bitter, just like this chapter.

Tinker had just gotten back from the marketplace when he noticed the door was left unlocked. 

"I swear I locked it!" he told himself as he left the bags full of supplies on the counter next to the entrance. He checked the security charms just in case. Whenever a stranger entered the house, the charms would show him who was here, what they said, where they went and so on and so forth. 

He was shocked to find out that Rue came here this early, the journey from Lunaris was a week long, on foot, at least. He saw her take the letters he had hidden from them. He had a reason for keeping them a secret, the two weren’t ready for those letters. He tried to protect them from the truth. Maybe that wasn’t right, but he had the best of intentions.

The charms then showed him what happened in the cottage when he was gone, including Rayla’s speech about the dragon prince.

They may have been his nieces, but he treated them like his own children, so he couldn’t let them succeed on this mission. The war had to happen, it would be their last chance to get rid of humans. Maybe the elves could get a hold of all of Xadia once and for all?! He was even more angry at them for bringing a human with them. _ Did he not raise them well enough to know common sense?! Humans are vile! All of them! _

He then found Rue’s letter on his desk. The letter was in a different print from usual, her letters were more pointed, as if she was in a rush. "_Hello. I’ve dropped by, but I couldn’t find you. Why did you even call me here if you didn’t want to help with this mission? Anyway, I’m rambling and running out of time here. I found Rayla, if that eases your mind. We have other stuff to do right now, but we’ll probably go looking for Runaan after we do what we have to do. _

_ -Rue."_

_ He couldn’t find Runaan by himself! - if he was still alive. Why did she never listen to him?! _

He thought she was smarter than this. Rue was a lot like him when it came to her opinion on humans. She hated them. Why would she choose not to kill the human?! He didn’t understand her reasoning. Maybe it was her naivety, her youth or maybe even her arcanum that made her opposed to the idea. Or maybe, she was just buying herself time. But if that wasn’t the case he had to take care of the situation by himself.   
  


He grabbed the bag of coins from his office and stormed out of the cottage with a plan. He had business in town at the moment, so he decided that he needed some help. Tinker walked towards a secluded part of town. He could barely see in the dead of night, but he couldn't wait for morning to come. He needed to find help as fast as possible. And to be fair, it was better to go there at night. It was the black market after all. While it was nothing to mess with, it was also the only way he could get the job done.

He walked in the darkness of the night until he saw a pale light in the middle of the street. He walked towards one of the stands. 

"Tinker! What business brings you here?!" Avanth, the man at the stand, asked him. 

"I need to hire two assassins," Tinker whispered. 

Assassins were only allowed to work for the Dragon Queen, so hiring them was illegal. 

"Ah! Why didn't you just say so?! Come with me!" The man announced as he began walking Tinker to the back of the shop. The light in the room was dim. The room had no furniture. He was distracted by the details, so he almost didn’t notice the two figures that stood in front of him.

Avanth gestured towards Tinker "These are my best assassins. I’m sure they’ll be helpful for whatever you need!" He then held open his hand, as if to say "My job is done, give me my part of the money!" Tinker understood the gesture and gave the man fifteen golden coins.

After Avanth left the room, Tinker headed towards the two figures. He didn’t care what their names were or who they were. All he cared about was his plan working, so he skipped the introductory nonsense and headed straight for business. 

"I need you two to head on the way to the Dragon Queen. There's a group heading there right now and I need you two to stop them. They’re a group of three and they have a dragon with them, easy to spot. The human is disguised as a Skywing. For this job, you need to kill the Dragon Prince and bring me the human, dead or alive, I couldn’t care less. But don’t even ** _dare_ ** harm the Earthblood or the Moonshadow," Tinker began.

"And what's in for us?" asked the Sunfire. 

"A hundred golden coins. Is that enough?" responded Tinker. 

"That could last us a whole year, of course it’s enough!" the Sunfire exclaimed. 

"It’s a deal then. You will start your journey at sunrise." Tinker said as he headed for the door.

* * *

"Are you insane?!" screamed the Moonshadow as they were heading to their makeshift hut, one last day home until their journey. 

"You heard him, one houndred golden coins is a lot, we could have a roof that doesn’t fall on us every two seconds for the first time in two years!" Solana argued. 

"But we have to kill the dragon prince! Doing missions against Xadia is the whole reason why we were exiled!" Daylor protested. 

"It won’t be like last time, this time we won’t get caught! Besides… this time we’re not on the humans’ side, the opposite in fact." Solana hated this living situation, she wanted her life back. She was a stupid child when they agreed to help the humans two years prior. She lost everything she had. Everything besides Daylor, that is. 

Daylor did not like being an outcast. During these two hard years, they’d traveled far and wide, all across Xadia, because exactly when life got easier and they had a decent work situation, their wanted posters were spread across town and they had to flee. They’d always end up building some hut in an isolated forest where no one could find them. And they were not good at building roofs, that was for sure.

Before all of this started, they had a peaceful life, training under Runaan to become assassins. But no, they decided they were better than that and that they should take any assassin job they could. 

Their first mission was in Neolandia. They had to assassinate one of Viren's political rivals. Daylor didn’t care about morals back then. He was a child, what did he know? So they got the job done and they had numerous missions all across the human kingdoms, Katolis, Duren, Neolandia, Delbar and even Everene.

But when they got back, there were wanted posters with their faces on them _ everywhere,_ with a caption that read "If anyone sees these traitors of our Queen, please proceed to inform the Council. The reward is 300 golden coins." Their families disowned them, but at least they were kind enough not to inform the authorities about their whereabouts.

It hurts doesn’t it? To have everything then nothing. At least he still had Solana, and that was all that mattered. Even if he lost his family, his home, his life, at least he had one friend who was there for him. He couldn’t lose her too, so he had to go with her on this mission, no matter how wrong it was.

The black market missions were all Solana’s idea. She was sick and tired of having to flee towns and settle in a muddy forest. They’d been gathering money for food and necessities. But life was far from perfect. This mission was their chance at a better life. They’d betrayed Xadia once, how much_ worse _could it get? If only she knew. 

* * *

Rue was quietly waiting for the two to wake up as the sun was rising. Oh boy. They were in trouble. _ Who _ did he think he was? Having the audacity to touch her sister when Rue threatened him like she did. She didn’t trust him. If she did, this would not be a big deal, _ but she didn’t._ He was the enemy. He could have gained Rayla’s trust just to stab her in the back. Rue couldn’t let her sister get hurt. No matter how little this human knew about magic, he still managed to unlock an arcanum, which made him a threat.

But she also knew her sister well enough to know that she didn’t allow people in her heart unless she knew she would never get hurt. Rayla was also a master at hiding her feelings, so even showing the slightest bit of affection towards this human meant a lot. They were very close for how little time they knew each other for. Seeing that, Rue told herself she would give the human a chance if she saw he truly cared about her sister. It didn’t matter how he showed it, or whether or not Rayla would show that more than him. If he cared, it would show in both their behaviours. So she continued waiting.

When they woke up, Rue stood there. Her arms were crossed and she looked at them, as if saying "You’re in trouble!" Rue caught Callum’s wrist and shoved him away from Rayla. 

She said, "What part of no touching did you _ not _get?" 

Callum froze in place. 

Lucky for him, Rayla had his back, "He did nothing wrong... I might have a little bit accidentally been responsible for the whole thing."

And that’s how Callum gained Rue’s trust. 

Rayla would never have his back if they didn’t care about each other. She still held a bit of a grudge but she trusted her sister, so she didn’t see him as an enemy anymore. But getting to friendship would require more than that. She didn’t see his magic as a threat anymore, knowing he could have used it against her when she threatened him, but he didn’t. However, she was still curious about how he could have learned an arcanum. 

Rue decided to play along as if she was surprised her sister was the mastermind behind this situation "What do you mean you ‘might have a little bit accidentally been responsible for the whole thing’?" 

Rayla scratched the back of her head as she said, "Well, not the whole thing, just most of it." 

Rue was intrigued. Now that she trusted him, the two would be so fun to tease, "Care to discuss?" she asked.

Rayla stumbled over her words, "Well... I ... you know.. my pranks... the moon.. I-" 

"You don’t need to say more, I get the point."

Rue knew her sister's moon pranks way too well. 

"Oh," Rayla really thought Rue wouldn’t get it, mostly because she didn’t have that many words to express herself without confessing her feelings. Callum would be a witness to that, and she was sure he didn’t have time for her feelings.

"That does not mean I’ll stop teasing you lovebirds!" Rue reminded them.

"Then I’ll make fun of you too, every chance I get to," Rayla affirmed. 

"Fair enough!" Rue answered.

* * *

They woke up in a hurry. The world was quiet and peaceful this time around, but even though the sun was barely up, they had to start the mission. They met up with Tinker who gave them a tracking device. That way, he could see where they were and they could talk through letters sent in by homing bird.

Daylor really hated this mission. All of their missions were morally wrong, but this one was even more so. How were they even supposed to kill the Dragon Prince? The human wasn’t a problem, they’d killed humans before, the problem was the dragon. How could he kill the heir to the throne of Xadia?

If they miraculously didn’t get caught, and won, he would live with the guilt of betraying Xadia yet again. _ Was Solana not in her right mind when she agreed to this? _

The truth was, Solana knew what they were getting themselves into, but they needed the money. The idea that they would get caught was still in the back of her mind, but she ignored it. They hadn’t gotten caught doing black market jobs before, why would it start now? Killing or kidnapping the human wouldn’t be hard. Even if the human had dark magic, they were trained to dodge it and knew how to combat it. The hard part would be killing the dragon. It may have been just a baby, but dragons were powerful creatures. They were not trained to kill dragons, that was for sure.

They were heading towards the trio. Solana and Daylor didn’t know where they were, but they knew that the trio was heading towards Gelida Caelorum, the Skywing town near the Dragon Queen’s chambers. They would have to go through Wraldare Forest to get there. Daylor and Solana knew Xadia like the back of their hands now, and it would be easy to track the trio. Living in hiding for two years helped with that.

As they were walking, Daylor stopped. "What are you doing? We should go now. You woke me up so early in the morning for this?!" Solana exclaimed. 

"I can't do this," He said quietly. 

"What do you mean you can't do this!?"

They needed this job, it would change their lives for the better. _ How could he be so selfish?! _

"It's just not right..." Daylor whispered, looking down to his feet.

She overreacted, she didn't mean to yell at him. And he was right. She understood, but they had no other choice, they'd already agreed. 

"It's what we have to do. And trust that what we'll do in the future is going to be far more difficult." 

Daylor continued walking. She was right, they had already agreed, it was too late now. Who knows what the man could do to them if they failed, let alone not go at all. "Understood," He managed to say.

* * *

Meanwhile, the trio stopped traveling a little before sunset, even though they were supposed to stop when night fell. Zym was getting sleepy, and they had to find shelter. They tended to forget that Zym was still a baby, even if he was the Dragon Prince. Callum was tired too, so he was happy that they stopped traveling for the day, but he never said it to the others.

Rue found a cave near a river. They decided to stay there. They were almost out of Wraldare and they were heading to the nearest town, Rexora, to get more supplies, since they'd almost run out of food. Thankfully, Rue brought money and so did Rayla, as she found some in her room when they left. 

Rue decided to cast a protection spell around the place, just in case. But it was more than that. She could feel strange auras coming their way, and as paranoid as she usually was, she was even more so now. The aura wasn’t magical at all, but she could feel so many odd vibes from it, so she assumed danger was approaching.

Rue sat on a rock under a tree. She put her arms forward and focused on the energy around her. It was harder to do a protection spell on an area of this size. So she tried to focus, and she tried, but it felt like something wouldn't let her concentrate. It felt like it was looking through her soul. But it was more like_ someone._ Callum was looking at her oddly. Or at least that's how she saw it.

The young mage had never seen someone not use runes while doing magic, as well as doing magic while sitting. He was curious, who could blame him? But he was also afraid of asking any questions because of the earlier encounter that day.

Rue opened one eye, looking in Callum's direction, "What you looking at?"

"Nothing! Just.." He couldn’t find the right words. How could he even ask a question knowing Rue hated him?

"Why are you fidgety? Are you scared of me or something?" Rue tried not to laugh. 

"A little," Callum mumbled. 

Rue couldn't concentrate because of this human but she was curious about what he wanted. She wouldn't tell him she trusted him just yet, because that opinion could change at any time. 

"What do you want?" She asked. 

"Well, I was wondering what kind of spell you were doing? Not using runes and all." He was new to magic, and he wanted to learn as much as possible, it was the_ only _ useful thing he was good at. 

"Protection spell. Earthblood magic only uses runes for complicated spells." _ Annoying magic questions, what else did she expect? _

"Is this one easy?" Callum asked. 

"No but it's not hard either,"_ If you would let me concentrate, that is _, Rue thought angrily, but being raised by Tinker made her good at hiding her emotions, especially rage.

So she tried to concentrate again. She wanted to say, "I don’t want to talk to you anymore, leave me alone." But she knew her sister was close to this human, and she didn’t want to lose her just because she wouldn't be nice to him.

"Are there sky magic spells that don't use runes?" he asked. 

"Do I look like a sky mage?" She was done with this. Rayla’s stupid human wasn’t a threat, but he was annoying. Rue ignored him afterwards so she could focus on the spell, but he kept asking questions and she’d had enough of it. She got up and angrily walked towards the cave where Rayla was watching Zym.

"Rayla!" Rue yelled as she was walking towards her little sister.  
"What?" Rayla whispered, a sleeping Zym in her lap. Zym stirred in his sleep and opened his eyes to see where the noise was coming from.

"See? You woke Zym up! What are you yelling for, anyway?" Rayla asked while petting Zym. 

"_Your_ dumb human can’t stop asking me questions and I can’t concentrate on the protection spell!" Rue exclaimed. 

"And what am I supposed to do?!"

Could Rue not talk to Callum about this or something? 

"Well, now that Zym’s awake, go teach Zym how to fly, go on a date with him, I don’t care, as long as he leaves me alone. I need space for this spell." By how affectionate they were with each other, Rue knew this human was probably her future brother-in-law so she didn’t want to be mean to him anymore, no matter how annoying he was.

Rayla was taken aback by Rue's statement but she decided not to pay it much attention. She walked towards where Callum was sitting. She took Zym with her. "What happened?" asked Callum. 

"Rue couldn't concentrate because you kept asking questions." Rayla responded. 

"Oh, I'm sorry I guess. I'm just very curious, that's all.." Callum explained. 

"I know. Traveling with you got me used to your curiosity!" Rayla let out a laugh. "Now come on, we should let Rue have her space, she gets cranky when she doesn't." She left out the part where Rue told her to go on a date. They didn't have time for her stupid feelings. They started walking. 

"Where are we going?" asked Callum. 

"We're just walking around. Since Rue woke Zym up, we have to get him to fall asleep. Tomorrow morning we'll wake up at sunrise and go to Rexora for supplies. The no speaking rule still applies, by the way." Rayla teased.

* * *

Rue sat on her rock and concentrated, then chanted. _ "Non permitto nemo veni prope dum sumus hic." _She was getting better at this type of spells. 

She let out a breath, looked around and said “What's that sound? Some needed peace and quiet!” Finally a quiet moment since they started the mission. As quiet as it could be, because she still felt like they were in danger.

Rue shook the thought off and tried to enjoy the moment while it lasted. Rayla and Callum would get back to camp sometime soon and the peaceful silence would disappear. Oh boy did that human talk a lot.

She walked back to the cave to get some moonberry juice, even though she didn’t like it that much. That’s all they had right now, beside actual moonberries. Rue couldn’t wait to get to Rexora and get supplies, and that was unusual because she hated having to deal with the marketplace vendors. The ones in Ayladell weren't that bad, but they weren’t good either. The vendors in Rexora were one of the most selfish people she had ever met.

As she ranted to herself about marketplace deals, Rue saw the letters in her backpack. She almost forgot about them. She had to tell Rayla. But she didn’t know how. How could she tell her Tinker had been hiding even more letters from them? Rue reacted badly, so she could only imagine how her little sister would react to the news. Rue didn’t want to admit it, but she was also afraid of what the letters could reveal. She never had a good relationship with her parents. Could these pieces of paper that looked insignificant change her opinion, or would they make her hate them even more? 

On the other hand, Rayla never hated her parents until she found out about how they ran away from their only responsibility, the Dragon Guard. Rayla was only two when they left, and she didn’t know why. She could barely even remember how they looked like. They never paid them visits. But Rue _ could _ remember them, and as much as they weren’t the worst parents, they weren’t the best either. When they were actually raising them that is. After they left Rue considered them the worst parents for abandoning their kids and never even caring to visit. Neither of them ever knew why they left, but after two years of studying a lot of history at the academy of magic, Rue had a vague theory. And she didn’t think Rayla was ready for the truth.


	4. Twisted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So where did Rue have these letters from? 

Rue was having an inner battle with herself as the night started to fall. Rayla and Callum were already asleep. She had no one to talk to, which meant that the thoughts she had been repressing all day came to her like an overwhelming swarm of bees.

She could not stop thinking about the letters. She had no idea what to do. Should she tell Rayla or not? And if she did, how would she even begin? Rue had yet to look through the letters, but she knew whatever information they contained, it was something big. Otherwise, Tinker wouldn't have hid them.

Then there was the human. She still didn't fully trust him, not yet. 

No matter how much he showed her he cared about her sister. He was still a human, and all humans are vile, that was common sense. But her gut was telling her he couldn't be that bad. He hadn't tried doing anything against them... yet. Rue was suspicious of him even though she knew she shouldn't have been. That was the way she raised herself to be. 

Her rationality told her he wasn’t much of a threat, after all he knew only two spells! And ones that weren’t that dangerous either. How harmful could he be? 

Rue knew danger was coming their way. She decided that if they found themselves in a dangerous situation, that would show how the human truly felt about the future peace of Xadia. After all, the other reason she suggested coming with them was that she was sick of this stupid war. But even if that happened, and he proved himself worthy of her trust, she would still be conflicted on whether or not she should truly trust him. But she would try. She really didn’t want to grow apart from her sister just because she still thought of humans as evil people. Callum still thought she hated him and if Rue was honest, that was a half-truth.

As she was trying her best at falling asleep, Rue thought of one more thing. How she got herself into this situation in the first place. If peace and war treaties were to come out of this, she didn't know if she would be that accepting of humans coming to Xadia. They could harm the whole ecosystem with their dark magic. And that would start rage within her. She was good at hiding her bad feelings from others, but if she saw anyone hurt a magical creature for power, the blood within her would boil. She didn’t know if she could control herself.

* * *

Daylor and Solana had been walking all day trying to find the three individuals and the dragon. It was getting late. They decided to camp. They would continue the mission first thing in the morning.

Daylor was getting more and more bored with each minute that passed by. He picked a tree branch off the ground and started sculpting it with his blade. Daylor stayed up a little longer crafting the flute, just like the one he lost as a child. 

When morning came, they started traveling again in search of the trio. The only problem was they didn't know exactly where they could find them. As much as both of them were used to finding people on their missions, it was harder now. 

They thought keeping track of a dragon would be easy, dragon footprints were easy to spot and recognize. Though they did find the footsteps of what looked like three elves and a horse, there was still no dragon. So either the three were good at hiding the Dragon Prince, or they were following someone else. They decided to follow them anyway because the chance of it being their target and the one of it not being their target, were the same. It was a 50/50 shot.

But Daylor had a better idea than following footsteps. He would lure them in. That way he could see who came.

He was playing the wooden flute when Solana interrupted him. "What are you doing? Do you want them to find us because you can’t keep quiet?!" 

Daylor answered, "That's exactly what I want! They come here wondering where the sound is coming from and we have the element of surprise!" Daylor then noted, "I am also playing a Skywing lullaby, the dragon would think he has found his mum, he’s the only one who knows that song."

Solana interrupted, "And what if the Earthblood tells the dragon it's a distraction, that it’s too far away for him to see his mother! Or he falls asleep!" 

"Eartbloods don’t know Skywing lullabies, Solana! And if he falls asleep, we could kill him faster!" Then he tried to imitate her. It was her fault they even had to deal with this. "_Besides_… It’s better than running around, not knowing who we are chasing, right?"

She sighed at that "Right…By the way...Where do you know a Skywing lullaby from?" She asked.

"I had a book full of songs from all over Xadia as a kid, you know that." She did know that. "Well, let’s just say I didn’t only learn stuff my teachers wanted me to learn..." he said.

"I never thought _that _ old book of yours could be useful!" That old thing? Good for something!? Solana couldn’t believe it. 

"Well, you better believe now!" He answered as he continued playing his song.

It was a good plan, Solana had to admit. But she only now started to realize what she had to do. She had to kill the heir to the throne of Xadia. She had to kill a dragon! A baby dragon! She was desperate for a job that could keep them alive and well, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t learned long ago what betraying Xadia could get yourself into. Would this feel worth it when all of it is done? Who knows what could happen to them if they didn’t succeed? Or if they did succeed, what would happen then? She should have thought of this before she agreed to go on this mission!

As Solana watched Daylor play, she raised her sword and got ready for whatever was to come.

* * *

Callum was the first who woke up. He was awoken by the sound of a beautiful melody coming from the depths of the forest. Even the birds sang more beautifully here. 

He lay under a tree, sketching the nature around him. He had to admit, Xadia was somewhere he had never imagined going. Growing up, he’d grown to believe that even though Xadia was a place of magic and wonder, all of it didn’t matter because the elves were bloodthirsty monsters. The humans had a lot of wrong prejudices about the elves, and he only assumed the hatred went both ways.

Back when they started their quest, he trusted Rayla despite the fact that logically, he shouldn’t have. They’d all grown up with the idea that they needed to hate each other. And that idea that this world was not going to change. Not unless they proved that wasn’t the case. And they would, he knew it. Though Callum didn’t even know how he had grown so close to Rayla, all he knew was that it felt _ right._

Rue's hatred towards him wasn't justified, but he expected it. She was trying to protect her sister from him, and as much as he would do the same for Ezran, he didn’t quite understand her. She was being unreasonably distant. He did nothing wrong. He just didn’t understand why Rue hated him so much. The only reason he cared about this was that he didn’t want the friendship he had with Rayla to suffer because of it. He cared about Rayla too much to lose her trust now, after everything they had been through. He was so lost in thought that he didn’t even realize when he started drawing Rayla instead.

Rayla woke up a little after him. She saw him sketching with a frown on his face, concentrating on his page. Why could he even be sad this early in the morning? Rayla walked towards him from behind. "What’cha drawing?" She asked as she stared at the paper, only to see an image of herself. She blinked. That couldn’t be true. Why would he even be drawing her? 

As Callum looked down at his page, he realized that he had been drawing her all along. He closed his sketchbook in a nervous fit. He messed up! She didn't need to know about his growing feelings for her, he wasn’t even sure if that was what he felt. And he couldn’t mess their friendship on this front too. He hoped she hadn't seen his drawing. "Nothing... Nothing… just drawing the scenery… that’s all!" But before he could embarrass himself even more and accidentally confess, they heard Rue screaming "Zym!!" while running into the forest. 

* * *

Zym had woken up from his peaceful slumber to a beautiful song being played from the deep forest, he’d never heard such a beautiful song before, and it somehow felt like home. He felt like he was carried by the wind to the strangely familiar song as he took flight in its direction. The young elf told him to never disappear out of their sight but he couldn’t control it. He felt like this odd song was home and he wanted to go home. 

When Rue woke up for the hundredth time that night, she heard a strange song. She opened her eyes and saw Zym quietly flying away from camp into the depth of the forest. Rayla and Callum were outside, talking, and they didn't seem to notice that Zym was not with her anymore. She started running after him trying to catch his attention. It was like he was being lured into the forest by something and she didn't know what to do. 

Rayla and Callum were distracted by their earlier interaction when they realized their little friend was nowhere to be found and that Rue was running into the forest, screaming his name. They looked at each other in fear, they couldn’t lose Zym! If the war started because they weren’t responsible enough to keep the dragon safe, Xadia would fall into chaos.

The three of them ran after the naughty baby dragon, but as Rayla was getting closer to Zym, she saw two elves near them. One of them was playing a wooden flute as the other held a sword in her hands with a look of determination on her face. 

They couldn’t be spotted now! But before Rayla could go into fight-or-flight mode, she tried to reassure herself "Callum is disguised," they won’t know he’s a human but then she realized that was not their only problem.

No matter how much they lied, they couldn’t cover up the fact that the heir to the throne of Xadia was still alive or what their mission was. If they ended up fighting for their lives, she would be the only one capable of fighting. Callum wasn’t that good at magic yet. He was also bad at sword fighting, and Rayla also didn’t know if Rue was any good at any fighting spells. 

* * *

Solana was focused on her sword. If this plan of Daylor’s worked, they could be done with this easily. Though, there was no dragon in sight... She wanted to tell Daylor his plan was not working, but she decided to give him some more time. After all, it was only a little past sunrise, and from what she assumed, the dragon was still a wee baby, it needed its beauty sleep. They had to kill it.

If she was being honest, the job wouldn’t be as bad if the creature they had to kill wasn’t of great power and importance to their homeland. Solana felt like she was getting into the mindset of a_ certain _ dark mage she greatly detested, killing _ innocent _ creatures for _ power._ But she digressed. She had already agreed before she knew what she had to do, and she promised herself one thing when she returned to Xadia. _ What happens in Katolis, stays in Katolis. _

She saw the little dragon not far from where she was standing, flying in Daylor's direction. Solana gestured towards Daylor to lure the dragon to her so she could lounge at the dragon and kill him with ease. Daylor started walking towards Solana, still playing the lullaby luring the dragon to their direction. But before she could even lay a finger on the dragon, she saw the three elves heading towards them. Well, one of which was a human, according to their employer.

Daylor stopped playing as he saw the three, he took his sword out and got ready for battle. The two were surprised to see their old friend in the group but didn’t pay it any attention. Rayla followed the rules most of the time, so there was no surprise that she would take a mission of peace. They had instructions not to hurt her or the Earthblood, so they weren’t going to. They did not want to kill the Dragon Prince and not get their hard earned money just because they gave those two a few scratches.

They tried avoiding the three for now, even though they had to capture the human sooner or later. Their priority was the dragon right now. But as she got closer to the two, Rayla recognized them. The two colleagues of hers who decided they were better than her and everyone else, so they went to the human kingdoms searching for as much assassin work as possible. Work which got them exiled for causing so much conflict, that the war almost started the year prior.

* * *

Daylor slowly approached the dragon, sword in hand, but before he could get any closer, Rayla spotted him. She didn't care that her old friends were her enemies now, they were getting too close to the dragon, and she knew what kind of missions they went on. She put two and two together and realized who they were after. 

Their opposing missions meant that Rayla had to protect Zym. No matter the cost. She took her blades out from their sheaths and approached him. Daylor changed tactics instead, planning to attack Callum. _ If he couldn’t get to the dragon, he could try capturing the human, that way, they could convince the other two to give them the dragon in exchange for the human. _ Solana swerved in Zym’s direction, getting in Rayla's way.

When Callum saw Daylor heading his way, he panicked and threw lighting at the elf who was out to kill him. "Fulminus!" The only impact the rushed spell had was electrocuting Daylor's hair and blowing it in every direction possible. 

Rue had a vague idea of what the two elves were up to. She whistled, calling Jade over. Rue said something to the horse, but Callum didn’t know what it was. Before he could comprehend what was happening, he found himself and Zym on Jade’s back. They were traveling at such a fast speed, he felt like he could fall off at any moment. He held onto the creature for dear life, while making sure Zym was safe.

Rayla looked at Rue with confusion. She didn’t exactly understand why her sister sent Zym and Callum away but she assumed Rue had some sort of plan. Rue’s plans weren’t always great, but her on-the-spot decisions seemed to work in bad situations. Rayla didn’t have time for worrying as she faced off her former friends.

Daylor couldn’t believe the human knew primal magic. It threw him off track. He wasn’t prepared to be electrified. The good thing was that the boy didn’t throw his spell in a place that would shock him to death, like his torso for example. His hair was fine, static-y, but fine. But that wasn’t what he needed to focus on. He looked at Solana for a second. They discovered that the Earthblood had managed to help the dragon and the human escape the battlegrounds. He and Solana slowly realised they couldn’t attack the rest of the group, otherwise the mission would be a failure. So, they had to dodge every attack Rayla threw at them, while making sure they didn’t even give her a bruise.

While Solana was facing off the boulders Rue threw at her, she gestured towards Daylor, trying to tell him that the only way to get out of there alive and continue the mission was to stop the battle. He understood, but neither knew how to achieve that. 

They dodged the two girls as much as they could, but it wasn’t working. Daylor decided that the only way out of this one was a distraction. As he dodged another one of Rayla’s attacks, he decided to say something. 

"Well, who would have thought little Rayla would join the humans, huh?" 

It was an honest question, but the bitterness in his voice was a lie. It was a way to distract Rayla from him and Solana. 

"So what if I did? Why would you two even care?" Rayla responded. 

Daylor’s plan was working. She was getting bitter, which had always been her weak spot in fights. He didn’t care about what his old friend was up to these days, all he cared about was the mission. He was doing this for him and Solana, after all. He agreed, as much as it was not morally right, this mission could give them a comfortable life, even if only for a year.

"Well Runaan wouldn’t be proud of that, now, would he?" Solana said, dodging when Rue threw a boulder at her. Neither Solana nor Daylor knew about Rayla’s former mission or of how the likelihood of Runaan being alive was small. So both of them were surprised when they saw Rayla suddenly drop her blades, while Rue froze in place. 

* * *

The two took the opportunity to run into the deep woods. Rue and Rayla didn’t follow them. Or at least, the two assassins didn’t think so. They found a good place to camp near a river. It was already sundown. Solana looked at herself in the river’s reflection. She had a few bruises over her arms from the boulders that she couldn't dodge. She wasn’t worried about it though. She’d been through worse. What could a few bruises do? She looked at Daylor. He washed his face, removing all the dirt. His hair was sticking up, still static-y. She tried so hard not to laugh. They may have been in a bad situation, but he looked hilarious. She just couldn’t keep a straight face. She went to pick up some sticks to make a fire, but also kept one so Daylor could sculpt himself a comb so he wouldn’t look so ridiculous. She couldn’t take him seriously. That wouldn’t do well in any future battle.

When she brought the stick, Daylor looked at her in contempt, "You do realise my blades are in no shape for sculpting right now?" He had to sharpen his sword and he’d left the whetstone in a cave. He didn't have time to grab it when they ran. Daylor realized he had also left the flute there, but that didn’t matter since that plan didn’t go that well anyway. 

"Okay, I get it but you look ridiculous! We need to fix your hair. I can’t take you seriously like this!" Solana exclaimed. 

"Fine, but I don’t see the problem with this. I didn’t get that electrocuted, and it’s just hair!" he protested. 

"Well, let’s just say I don’t want to die because I looked at you for one second and I started laughing in the middle of a battle!" Solana said. 

"Okay, okay. I understand." Daylor replied.

It took a lot of convincing, but Solana managed to get Daylor to let her comb his hair with that tree branch. He did not agree, but he knew Solana too well, and she would not let this down until he agreed to all her plans. When Solana tried to get all the knots and static out of his hair, Daylor started screaming in pain.

"Stop acting like a little kid. Do you want to look ridiculous in the middle of a battle?" Solana said, pulling on his static hair even more.

"But it hurts!" Daylor exclaimed while dragging his head away from her. 

"Well, sorry I couldn't find a comb in the middle of the fucking forest! This tree branch is all I have!" Solana yelled. It took her two hours to get his hair out of its static-y, tangled state. It would have taken her less time if Daylor wouldn’t have been a crybaby about it. 

* * *

  
  


Callum held onto Jade for dear life. Zym was in his lap. Callum was making sure that the Dragon Prince wouldn’t fall off Jade and disappear or die. Luckily, the ride to camp wasn’t that long. His little journey was over. He didn’t understand why Rue did this. He was able to take care of himself! But as he waited for her and Rayla to return, he had time to think. Maybe it wasn’t _ him _ that Rue was making sure didn’t fight, it was Zym. The baby dragon was barely two weeks old, he couldn’t do a lot. He was vulnerable. Callum petted Zym, as he looked through his sketchbook. He saw Rayla’s image on the last page. She hadn’t returned yet. It was getting late. He started to think that something bad had happened to her. But he kept himself optimistic, no matter how much he would overthink. His growing feelings for her didn’t help him. He knew he couldn’t ever confess to her, not when war was breaking loose. They wouldn’t work out. Not when elves and human hated each other.. Especially not when he was royalty — through marriage, but still royalty. Katolis started this conflict, so if people found out that the prince of Katolis and an elf were together who knew what would happen. Another war? Worse? Who knew? 

* * *

The sisters were trying to find the assassins to no avail. The forest was too dense for them to find the two. But they _did _ pick up the whetstone and the flute Daylor left behind.

As they walked through the forest, the two held their heads down, deep in thought. Daylor’s mention of Runaan released the thoughts they had been holding back for days, weeks in Rayla’s case. Rayla knew that she was responsible for the failed mission. The people in her crew, including Runaan, were all probably dead. It was all her fault. She shouldn’t blame herself for it, after all, she saved the Dragon Prince and was returning him to his mother. But it didn’t matter. For all she knew, her choices, as well intended as they were, caused Runaan’s death. He _ wouldn’t _ be proud of her. She failed the mission. If he was alive—it would be a miracle if he was—he would hate her for her decisions. She just knew it.

Rue was sad for a different reason. She knew Runaan would have wanted her to listen to Tinker, but her gut feelings were too strong. She didn’t find him back home, so she assumed he called her there for a different reason that wasn’t as important. Probably because he knew that she wouldn’t show up unless it was something urgent. He did tell her about her sister though. It got her here in the first place. 

She recognised Rayla’s former classmates. She knew what they did in the past, but she did not know what they were after at the moment. She didn’t see why they would want the dragon. Well... she could... but it didn’t make that much sense. Weren’t they exiled? Why would they want to hurt or kill the Dragon Prince? Wouldn’t... as bad as it sounded... stealing him make more sense for them? What did they want with Callum? He was just a human! He was a mage, sure, but she didn’t see why that would matter. Thinking back to the battle, he tried to electrocute one of the two assassins but failed miserably. 

Even though Callum was relieved to see the two approach, he was still mad at Rue "Why did you throw me on to the horse without saying anything! I almost fell off 3 times! And if it wasn’t for me, Zym would have fallen too!" Rue was unsurprised that he would be mad at her. From Rayla’s stories, she knew that he had ridden horses before, but he, for sure, wasn’t ready for a wooden horse. She walked towards Jade and petted her companion, as she continued the conversation. "Rayla said you had ridden horses before, I thought you would manage. And well, we had to protect Zym somehow. You were also getting attacked by what’s his name, and I thought I would shoot two birds with one stone and get you both out of there before something happened. From what Rayla tells me, you’re not that good of a fighter." Callum looked at Rayla. 

"Ya can’t blame me! It’s kinda true... but there’s nothing wrong with that!" Rayla responded. 

"But I’m a good mage right?" Callum asked Rayla for reassurance. 

"Ehh... not really," Rue intervened. 

Rayla shot a glance at her sister, hissing, "Rue!" She looked towards Callum with a calm smile "Good for a beginner!"

* * *

As night fell, they decided to actually keep watch for once. After all, they had been spotted. Who knew when those two would attack again. Rayla wanted to be the one keeping first watch. Rue tried to rebel against it at first, but Rayla assured her she would be fine. "I’m not a small child anymore, Rue! I can take care of myself!" Rayla said as she walked outside. 

"Fine, just tell me if anything happens." Rue said as she walked towards Jade. 

Rayla stood on a rock, glancing to the cave once in a while. Callum was closest to her in distance so she looked at him first. He used her blanket for warmth at the mouth of the cave. The cave was colder, so he wanted to be as close to the end of it as possible. He would rather sleep outside, but Rayla didn't let him. For some reason Daylor was after him, and Rayla didn’t want him to get hurt. She couldn’t lose him, not when he meant so much to her. She remembered the earlier encounter that morning and smiled to herself. She didn’t know why Callum was drawing her, but she took it as a compliment. Zym on the other hand, was cuddling up to Callum trying to steal his blanket. It was a silly sight. 

She couldn’t even see Rue from where she was standing. She assumed her sister and Jade were somewhere deeper into the cave. Rayla kept watch for a few more minutes, but she started to get bored of it very easily. She walked towards where she believed Rue was and found her sister's backpack so that she could get the whetstone the two assassins left behind to sharpen her blades. The only problem was that she couldn’t find it because apparently, Rue collected tons of pieces of paper. As she was trying to sort through the letters, she observed one thing. 

The Dragon Guard symbol. These were letters from her parents. When she found the whetstone, realization hit her and she dropped it on the ground. Rue’s birthday had long passed and they didn’t send that many anyway. They ran away like cowards when Thunder was slayed. _ So where did Rue have these letters from? _


	5. The older I get

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> But as much as it hurt, that was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Rayla couldn’t believe her eyes. _ Her sister had been hiding this from her. For who knows how long! _

To say she was enraged was an understatement. But as she paced in fury, she started thinking rationally. The letters _ weren’t _ open. Well most of them weren’t. Only one was. It was the oldest compared to the others, judging by appearance. 

Why wouldn’t Rue have opened them before? That didn’t make sense. Unless she sealed them with magic... but that was Moonshadow magic, not Earthblood. So really, her sister seemed to be guilt free so far. Rayla would have a talk with her in the morning, anyway.

Since she had nothing better to do until her sister woke up for her shift, Rayla decided to open the letters. What could go wrong? A lot, it seemed.

The first letter was written a long time ago, back when she was too young to read it. She guessed that it was the first letter their parents had sent them when they joined the Dragon Guard. It was the old one, the only one that had been opened before. 

"We miss you two a lot already and we haven’t even been here for a week! Listen to Runaan. I think he’s reading this to you now, if he doesn’t have too much work besides you two." The words brought back a memory for Rayla. She was only two years old when her parents left, Rue was only four. Rayla cried for days when she realised a long time had passed and they still hadn’t returned home. Runaan would try to cheer her up, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get the toddler to stop crying. Rue wasn’t much better, but she chose to isolate herself and played with sticks and stones instead. 

* * *

One day, Runaan came home with a letter, this letter, to be specific. He read it to the two children trying to cheer them up. It was a message from their parents, after all. Rue teared up back then. Unlike Rayla, she had already learned that in their family, you had to hide your emotional side. Moonshadow families don’t show fear or negative emotions. Even if Rue wasn’t blood related to the rest of her family, that didn’t mean they treated her any different. But Rue broke that rule. She should have known better. Rayla was too little to understand that concept. Runaan didn’t say anything though. He could have yelled at Rue for not following their custom. But he didn’t. Rue was only a child, and he felt sorry for the two sisters.

He knew what happened when someone was chosen as a member of the Dragon Guard. Little to no contact. 

He didn’t even expect letters unless it was a special occasion. The two were given to him and he believed from the first second that he would raise the children without their parents around at all. He didn’t expect a letter so early on, maybe on the children's birthdays or on holidays but not now. 

Their parents were one of the best Dragon Guards back at the Storm Spire, which meant they needed to do anything to protect the Dragon Queen and King, and that meant that they had no time for letters. 

It was a stupid rule, but it was there to keep the members of the Dragon Guard on deck at all times. So the fact that they were sending letters meant that they were doing it undercover. He didn’t know how they managed to do this, but he didn’t care. At least these children would have one final goodbye to their parents.

The letters came in almost every week, and by the time Runaan would get home, Ethari would have moved them to his office. Ethari had a reason for all of this. He couldn’t allow the children to know about all of the letters since they were sent undercover. If Rue and Rayla talked about getting regular letters from their parents to other children or adults, Tiadrin and Lain could get in trouble. And of course he didn’t want his best friends to lose their hard earned positions just because they were unintentionally exposed by their own children.

* * *

Rayla felt her vision blurring up. She was crying, wasn’t she? The memory was just _ that _vivid and she couldn’t keep it bottled up anymore. Thinking about her parents had always made her feel a lot of things at the same time: sadness, abandonment, anger. Always keeping it inside made this moment weighing her down ten times heavier than it normally would have.

She lost sense of time and space for a moment. She kept staring at the old piece of paper in her hand. It was like she was reliving the moment for a thousandth time. Rayla barely remembered her parents, and for some reason she blamed herself for it. Even before they ran away, she could barely remember what they sounded like, who they were as her parents and as people. She only knew about how they looked like because of the pictures in the living room. Her memory of them had faded through the years. She never knew if what she remembered of them actually happened or she made it all up. It wasn’t like she could ask anyone, anyway. Rue didn’t remember much either, meanwhile Runaan and Ethari couldn’t tell her because they weren’t there at the time. Even if the two would tell her and her sister stories about her parents, it wasn’t the same as actually being with them.

Lost in thought, she didn’t notice the footsteps that were approaching her. Luckily, or not, depends on how you put it, it was only Rue.

Rue walked towards her sister, ready to watch in case the two assassins came back. "Rayla you can-" Rue began to say, but she stopped as she saw the letters on the floor and the tears in her sister's eyes. 

"How could you hide this from me! You think I wouldn’t want to know what Mum and Dad wanted to tell us?" Rayla raised her voice. 

"I didn’t. I found these when I was in Ayladell, in Ti-Ethari’s office," Rue explained. 

She wasn’t used to calling him by his name, only family called him that, the rest of the townspeople called him by his profession "Tinker". She began calling him Tinker when he grounded her for using magic. He was a mage himself, he should have understood what it's like to not practice your magic when you really wanted to. But he didn’t understand. Rue didn’t know if he blamed himself for the fact_ he _couldn’t teach _her _ because she was an Earthblood elf or because there was no other Earthblood mage in the whole town who could teach her. He had lost the status of family to her. But that didn’t matter. Rayla was crying because of these letters—Rayla _never _cried. This was serious. Rue sat down next to her sister. She looked over at the letter in her hand. She recognised it. It was the first one they were sent after their parents left. "You should really go to bed, we’ll open the letters in the morning. Together," Rue said as she hugged her little sister. Rayla pulled away. 

"No." 

"What do you mean no?" Rue asked. 

"Do you honestly think I could go to sleep after this?!" Rayla responded angrily.

"Then what are you going to do?" Rue wondered.

"_We _ are going to go through these letters. There has to be a reason why we haven’t read them yet," Rayla stated.

All night, they read through the letters. Most of them were about everyday stuff. It looked like there was no information on why they hadn’t been receiving the letters. That was until they read the last letter. It was written three years ago, long before there were any signs of the big war that was approaching.

"Sadly, our letters will start to be more infrequent. We think you two are old enough to know what going against the rules means. We have been sending letters in secrecy. We were going against the rules so we could talk to you two. We’re glad Ethari sent us your responses.—" 

"What?!" The two looked at each other. They never saw the letters let alone respond to them! "How did he even respond? The letters weren’t even opened!" Rayla said in disbelief until the thought she had earlier about Rue came in and she answered her own question. "Magic... illusions..."

"Tinker really is a bastard mage..." Rue thought.

The sisters continued reading the letter. "Even though we would have expected you two to be able to respond yourselves by now—" Well they could at that time—They were fourteen and twelve, respectively—but they didn’t know the letter even existed. "We can’t send these letters anymore. But we’ll try to at least send a message for your birthdays.-" They did get birthday letters every year. "We never intended to leave you two when you were that young. We thought we could at least spend a couple of years with you until we were called on duty. Sometimes things don’t work out the way you want them to. That’s just how life works. We want you two to know that we love you with all of our hearts, we always have and always will." 

The two were left speechless. By that time, Rayla could feel her tears continuously falling, and she began sobbing. She had blamed her parents all these years for not being there for them. But from the looks of it, they tried to be. 

The final straw was when they ran away. She still blamed them for it. 

As her tears dried, her rage started to take over. "Why would Ethari hide these from us? Why would he?!" Rayla almost yelled. It was a rhetorical question. She wasn’t expecting Rue to respond. 

"I don’t know, Ray. You of all people should know that I never understood him, even if he was the only other mage I knew back then." Rue tried not to cry in front of her sister. Rayla needed the support. What support could she give if she was crying her eyes out too? 

'Maybe he tried to do what was best for us?" Rue didn’t believe her own words but she needed to help her sister. She needed sleep. 

"Maybe," Rayla replied, holding her legs to her chest as she sat on the rock. 

"Go to sleep, Ray. Please," Rue said in a calm tone, as calm as she could possibly be. Rue focused on her breathing, it was the only way she could stop herself from realising the tears she had been holding in for so long. 

"Okay."

Rayla didn’t protest anymore. Her eyes were red from crying and she needed sleep. 

Rayla walked towards the cave. She took Rue’s blanket from her backpack and sat next to the sleeping form of the Dragon Prince. She rubbed his back. "We’ll get you back to your mum, Zym, at least _ you _ can have a family reunion that makes you happy..." Zym purred in his sleep. 

Callum was only a few meters away from the two. He was trying to fall back asleep as he had woken up when he heard Rue heading out of the cave. 

In his half asleep daze, he’d heard Rayla murmuring something to herself or to Zym, he didn’t know which. He opened one eye to see how Rayla was doing before he would go back to sleep. 

As he saw her dried tears and her red eyes the statement of, "I’ll go back to sleep after this." became "_If _I go to sleep after this." 

* * *

"Rayla," He raised his voice in the near silence of the cave. "Did something happen?" No response. "Are you okay?" Still no response. Callum moved towards her. She moved away. "Rayla, please, talk to me. I want to help. I care about you." Her response wasn’t what he expected. "Well you shouldn’t, there’s nothing you can help with." She said dryly, moving away from his side once again. 

"Go to bed, Callum."

"But I-" He tried to respond but she interrupted him. 

"There’s nothing you can do about this. You_ shouldn’t _ care-" She began, he interrupted her. 

"But I do care! I’m not going to go to bed unless I know I helped you with whatever the problem is. You’re my friend, my best friend, of course I care about you." Despite knowing she would shove him off, he got up and walked towards her and went in for a hug. That’s how his mom calmed him down during his panic attacks as a child. He just hoped it would help her too. She didn’t shove him off. All she did was mumble what he could only understand as, "Callum…" 

"Rayla, if you don’t want to talk about whatever left you like this, it’s fine. Just... breathe..." He said, Rayla put the blanket she got from Rue on the ground and laid down next to Zym. She focused on her breathing like Callum advised, but it didn’t help. The two looked at each other, as if they knew the other wanted to talk. "It’s hard to explain. It’s a very long story," She said. 

"I have nothing better to do than listen," Callum replied.

Rayla sighed and tried to focus her thoughts on what happened. After a few moments of silence, she said "I found out some information about my parents." She paused. "I know you lost both of your parents, I have too, in a way. But I had Runaan and Ethari… " She paused again. "When we went back home… Rue found some letters in Ethari’s office. They were from our parents. Letters we have never read or heard of. All our lives we thought that our parents didn’t care about us besides the times they would send in letters for our birthdays. But that wasn’t true… though, that doesn’t erase the fact that they cowardly ran away when Zym’s egg was stolen," A single tear fell out of her left eye as she said the next sentence. "I don’t understand why Ethari would do this to us... He’s family to me... Why would he hide our parents from us?" She asked. 

"You know that I’m not capable of answering that. Maybe he had a reason, be it for good, for bad or for neither. But what you need right now is to forget it happened for a few hours." He laid down next to Zym. "Just know, me and Zym are here for you, right buddy?" Zym cuddled closer to Rayla giving her one of his zappy kisses. Rayla laughed for the first time that night. "And I’ll always be there for you. Always." Callum said as he held her hand in his, rubbing his thumb carefully against her knuckles. Rayla fell asleep with her and Callum’s hands intertwined. 

* * *

Rue climbed onto the rock Rayla had been sitting on, meditating. She threw the letters under a bunch of leaves so she could forget about them until she would shove them into her backpack the next morning. 

She couldn’t believe Tinker would hide such precious information from Rayla. Rue knew how the Dragon Guard didn’t allow messages because she learned about it in her studies, but Rayla didn’t. This affected Rayla way more than it could ever affect her. What angered her was that her parents struggled to send letters undercover and they never arrived to the two of them, and what was worse, Tinker wrote replies in their name. How he could get in the mind of a child when writing them was a mystery to her, but that didn’t matter. She had officially lost the little trust she had left for Tinker.

She thought back to the assassins that were after the Dragon Prince and Rayla’s human "friend". Rayla knew them, they used to be trained by Runaan. She didn’t understand why they would want to kill the Dragon Prince. He could restore peace, which would mean if they helped them bring Zym back, maybe the Dragon Queen would forgive their previous actions. So why would they want to _kill _their only hope?

That’s when things started to make sense to her. Tinker never really liked humans. No, that was an understatement. He _ hated _ them. 

Could they? No. He couldn’t be that much of a bastard. Could he? 

* * *

Daylor woke up before sunrise that day. His head still hurt from Solana trying to detangle his hair. But she was right, he did look ridiculous. Though that wasn’t his current worry. They needed to inform Tinker about their failed attempt. He didn’t know how the man would react. They weren't far away from Ayladell anyway, so if they got fired, they could find a different job back at Avanth’s place.

But first, he needed to wake Solana up so they could decide on what to write to their employer. The problem was, Solana wasn’t exactly an early bird. Runaan used to lecture her a lot about missing morning classes and warm ups just because she didn’t wake up on time. On their recent missions, he always had to make sure he woke up two hours earlier than he needed to be up so he could wake her up. 

He grabbed her arm, shaking it, trying to tell her it was morning. The only response he got was a slight murmur of "Five more minutes…" as she turned to her other side. 

Usually that would be enough, but it looked like she was being extra stubborn today. Daylor began thinking to himself "Well, that failed, hmm what could I do?" A not so brilliant idea came to mind.

He took his empty water pouch and took some water from the river nearby. He dropped a few drops on Solana’s face. She did wake up, though by the looks of it, she was pissed at him. "One of these days I’m going to kill you." Solana stated as she looked up and saw the sun beginning to rise slowly. "Why’d wake me up this early? The sun is not even up yet!" Solana wanted to go back to sleep so she laid back down. 

"We have to inform Tinker about the attempt." Daylor said as he raised his voice enough for her to understand him in her half-asleep stupor. 

"Why? We could just tell him about it when we actually succeed," She asked. 

"He told us to send letters with the progression of the mission, you know that," He responded. 

"So?" She asked. He didn’t respond, so she continued. "Did we make any progress? No. So why should we even send in a letter now?" Solana said, eyes still closed. 

"Because failing might not be what he wants to hear, but he should know we saw the three and tried to battle them," Daylor responded. 

"Fine, fine. But why don’t you just write it yourself?" Solana said as she got up. "Because I want a second opinion. And I don’t think there’s anyone else here that could help me with that," He said. 

Solana looked up and saw an Earthblood fox sipping some water from the river. "Why don’t you ask that fox over there instead of waking me up?" She asked, her tone sarcastic. 

"Very funny…" He said with the same tone in his voice. 

Daylor started writing the letter. Solana was too tired to participate much. 

"So how does ''Our plan has failed because the Earthblood sat the human and the dragon on a wooden horse who ran out of sight. We dodged the two elves’s attacks but had to flee the scene.'' sound?" Daylor asked. Solana only nodded in response, her eyes almost closing on themselves. "Are you there?" Daylor asked. 

"Physically, yes. Mentally is debatable," Solana responded.

"Fine. You can rest until we get a response," Daylor said. 

"Finally!" Solana exclaimed as she threw herself at the bed made of leaves.

The response to their message came an hour later. It was a lengthy letter about how "They should have thought of a better plan," and "They should make a plan B." Daylor didn’t bother to wake Soalna up again as he sent a simple reply "And what's this plan B about?" The letter came back ten minutes later, much faster than Daylor expected. 

"The group might be headed to Rexora for supplies. I’ve sent some coins, enough for a few illusion potions and maybe some supplies if needed. You two need to disguise yourselves since they’ve already seen you. Be careful about your auras though, the Earthblood can sense them. You’ll say you are headed to Gelida Caelora, as are they. That way you’ll have enough time to trick them into trusting you and then you’ll drop the facade. And by the way, this will be your last chance to finish the job, if it doesn’t work, you’re fired."

Daylor never knew Tinker well, even when he was a child living in Ayladell. Back then, maybe even to this day for all he knows, Tinker was a mysterious persona. He seemed like a normal citizen to others, but even when Daylor was only a child, he could see that something about Tinker was unusual. Something in the way he talked with everyone, like he was holding an act. He never expected Tinker to be the one that would send him and Solana on a mission to kill the Dragon Prince. It didn’t make sense. But in this harsh, harsh world, what really does?

His employer’s motive wasn’t clear. It was a mission Daylor had to succeed in, he shouldn’t be asking "why?" like a child who is just learning about the unfairness of the world. But he did anyway. What would Tinker gain from the death of the Dragon Prince? What did he intend to do with the human? The first question was what made him wonder more. The second would be easier to answer. Maybe he needed a test subject or wanted to know the secrets of dark magic from a human themself, but there was a third option that made the most sense, maybe, like _most _elves, he just hated humans _ that _ much. 

Daylor walked towards his partner in crime who was petting the fox that was the subject of her sarcasm earlier that morning. "What did he say?" She asked. Daylor handed her the letter. 

"Well, looks like we’ll be in trouble if we don’t succeed in this mission," She observed. "I wouldn’t say trouble. At least not more than usual." Solana laughed at his response. 

* * *

If the two didn’t succeed then Ethari would have to take the matter into his own hands. And he didn’t want to hurt Rayla and Rue, they’d never understand his motive, and they’d just turn against him_. _ _ But as much as it hurt, that was a sacrifice he was willing to make. _

The problem was, he had a potion to make due next week. Which wouldn’t have been a problem if he didn’t need to collect a lot of ingredients for it. As he was walking out the door, the potion shop vendor, also known as Avanth, walked in. "Tinker! Glad to deal with you the other day." 

"Why are you here? If you’re here for that potion, I told you it will be done next week," Ethari said in a confused tone. "About that, I don’t need it anymore. My son learned brewing recently, and he seems to be pretty good at the craft. He brewed me the potion already," Avanth said before laughing at his next statement. "Hell, I’ve already sold it." 

He handed Ethari five golden coins. "For the work you’ve probably already done. Again, sorry for the inconvenience."

"No worries!" Ethari said as Avanth walked out of the door.

Well, it looked like he had time for _ his _plan B after all. Ethari waked out of the house, locking the door behind him. He walked towards the center of the town, where the fountain was situated. 

When he arrived, he looked at Rayla’s lotus. It was still above the water, full with life. Good, at least in their attempt they didn’t hurt the two. That wouldn’t only get them fired, but he would_ kill _them with cold blood if they even dared touch his daughters.

Underneath, barely visible, was Runaan’s lotus, it was under the water but still floating, somehow…

Ethari suspected Runaan was somewhere between life and death, and Ethari had to find him. He couldn’t deal with everything alone. He needed Runaan by his side.

Etahri wasn’t sure Runaan would agree with his mission of killing the Dragon Prince. But he hated humans as well, so why would he disagree with the best way the war would start? The best way to get rid of humankind. The Dragon Prince was already presumed dead, after all that was the reason Runaan even went on that mission. 

A secret, no, a lie, that almost got his husband and daughter figure killed, not to mention actually killing Runaan’s crew. Good friends of his whose deaths were all humanity’s fault. Etahri had to avenge them and find his husband, and he couldn’t do both at the same time. That’s why he hired the two outlaws. They were perfect for the job. They were already hated by both sides of the war, them starting it wouldn’t affect him. They could tell everyone he was the mastermind behind the mission, and no one would believe them. 

Anyone in their right mind wouldn’t believe the exiled traitors over a simple man who never even left Xadia.

As he stared at the water thinking about what supplies he needed to take on his trip to Katolis, Runaan’s last words from before the mission came to mind. "Even if the possibility is small, promise me this. If I lose myself, you won’t mourn a day and you’ll move on." Etahri wasn’t happy that those were the last words Runaan had ever said to him before his disappearance. It was like Runaan knew all along that they would fail the mission. He put Rayla in danger regardless. The Dragon Queen gave the orders and Runaan couldn’t deny them, but he still thought that bringing Rayla along would be a great idea. Which in Ethari’s humble opinion, it wasn’t. Even if Rayla had begged Runaan to take her on an actual mission for months, that didn’t mean he should have accepted. Runaan knew how dangerous this particular mission was, but he couldn’t just say no. 

They had an argument about it a few days before they left for the mission, but in the end, Ethari realized it was too late for Runaan to leave Rayla out of the mission. Besides, she was _ so happy._ She had worked so hard for this. She deserved it. But what neither of them expected was that the mission changed everything. That mission brought both of them so much sorrow. He didn’t exactly know how much it had affected Rayla, but he knew it had. For all she knew, Runaan was dead. Maybe she made peace with the thought in the weeks she was away, but losing a parent figure after she had lost her biological parents must have been a lot to take in. He didn’t want her to lose him as well in his mission, but he didn’t have a choice. Humanity had to pay for what they’d done to Xadia, for what they’d done to his family. 

The second part of what Runaan said was what Ethari didn’t understand. How could his husband expect him to move on, if he died? He could never forget Runaan, not even if he purposely tried. But Runnan wasn’t dead. Ethari was sure of that. If he wasn't completely alive, then he was somewhere between life and death. Ethari had to find him.

Ethari walked back to the cottage, taking some food, potions and spells with him, leaving the lights on as if he was home all along. As he walked towards the back of the house, his old wooden horse was eating some of the hay he had left the previous day. Even though it had grown old and rusty, the horse was still healthy enough to take him to Katolis in record time. He didn’t waste any more time and began his journey. 

* * *

When the sun rose, Rue was still meditating. No signs of the assassin's auras so far. Which was good. 

She assumed her sister along with Callum and the Dragon Prince were still asleep, as they hadn’t come out of the cave yet. She couldn’t blame Rayla for sleeping in. The dragon was just a baby, so it was expected of him, and she didn’t know much about humans. Maybe they needed more sleep than the elves, but she couldn’t care less. 

The scenery was peaceful in its silence. Even though she loved the sound of silence, she somehow missed her sister's loud voice, or the millions of annoying questions coming from her sister’s human companion. It wasn’t like her, but after the letters, the silence didn’t make her feel at home anymore. Instead, it filled her thoughts with what if’s and a million different scenarios. 

Rue decided she should see what her sister was up to as her thoughts were taking the better of her. 

Jade was already awake when Rue walked into the cave, in search of her backpack. She petted her horse, Jade whinnied in response. As Rue placed the letters into her backpack and closed it shut, Jade walked outside. Rue’s arcanum and empathy for the creatures within it let her understand Jade. 

Then, Rue walked towards where she assumed her sister was sleeping, only to see that her sister took her blanket. Rayla was safe and sound next to the human, which to Rue, seemed like a formed habit. The Dragon Prince was hugging both of them with his tiny wings. 

Rayla woke up at the sound of Rue’s footsteps. Rue didn’t tease Rayla as soon as she woke up, like she usually did. Instead, she comforted her sister first. "Did you sleep well?" Rue asked. 

"Kind of," Rayla began "It’s not like I’ve forgotten everything..." 

"I wouldn’t expect you to," Rue sat down with her legs crossed "I’ve been thinking about the letters all night. Hell, I have been thinking about them ever since I found them, even before we opened them."

When silence fell, Rue decided it was about time she changed the subject. She looked at her blanket as Rayla took it from underneath herself.

"Rayla," Rue began, catching her sister's attention. "Why did you steal my blanket while sleeping next to him?" She asked as Rayla was giving her blanket back to her. When Rue held the blanket in her hands she added."Now my blanket smells like humans!"

As Callum woke up to the noise, both him and Rayla had the same question "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I don’t know, what could it?" Rue asked rhetorically. 

"It’s because I haven’t bathed in two weeks, isn’t it?" Callum said. 

"Hold up. That’s how long you two have been traveling, right?" Rue asked 

'Yes," Rayla responded "Why?"

She continued. "Rayla. Why did you not tell me this when we were back home?" Rue asked as she moved towards her sister, sniffing her. "You smell like tootelips," Rue added. 

"Oh, why thanks, I did not know that," Rayla said sarcastically. 

"What’s a tootelip?" Callum asked. 

"You don’t wanna know, trust me," Rue stated.

"Anyways," Rue said as she bent down, taking Zym in her grasp, "We’re running out of supplies, we need to head to Rexora soon. I suggest now would be a good time to do so."

"And according to you, maybe find a restroom." Rayla said. 

"Well that too, but it’s not that bad, I admit I was exaggerating a little," Rue responded. "Just a little?" Rayla said as the three began walking, with Jade following. Rue knew that they couldn’t all fit on Jade so the walk to Rexora would take twice as long. 


	6. Take flight

As they travelled towards Rexora in silence, Rue was deep in thought. They had already traveled halfway towards Gelida Caelora, as they were going around the Midnight Desert. 

They still didn’t know what the assassins wanted and why they were following them. Rue had some vague theories but nothing was concrete. The only thing she was certain of was that Tinker had something to do with it. 

She and her sister would never defeat the assassins. Both teams were just as powerful as each other. Which meant they would just play cat and mouse forever. Which could only end up in tragedy for both sides. That is, if they did it alone. They should have an advantage.They were three versus two after all. But instead of helping, Callum just became a liability. But that could change. He knew they were after him, there was no element of surprise anymore. Rue also came up with a plan to help them.

She stopped walking and began rummaging through her backpack. Rayla turned around to look at her sister. Callum followed her gaze. 

“What are you doing?” Rayla asked as Rue kept searching through her backpack. “Rue?” Rayla asked. 

Rue picked a book out of her backpack and threw it at Callum. He yelped in pain. “What was that for?” 

“It’s a primal magic book. With the assassins chasing after you, you need to learn to fight back.You might not have gotten wounded but Fulminus and Aspiro are not going to work forever.” Rue began, “Otherwise you’ll remain a liability. Sky magic spells are on page 248,” Rue continued. 

Callum froze in place, book in hand. Why would she even want to help him? She hated him. “Why would you even want to help me?”

Rue tried to use as many formal words as she could. Because just saying, _ “Rayla’s obviously in love with you and any damage done to you will hurt her greatly, which I’ll have to deal with and I’m not great at the whole feelings-comforting stuff,” _ was not going to cut it. “First, I treat my allies as friends. Second, any collateral damage done to you would slow the progress of the mission down. Third, the Dragon Queen needs to know a human participated in the mission. A dead body isn’t going to prove anything.” Well, that came out darker than intended, but she needed to get her point across. 

Rayla looked at Rue with a disapproving look. “Well, that, and the fact that you, a human, are able to do magic. That is something I’ve only read about in forgotten history books and I know how it is not being able to practice your magic,” Rue said. 

“As I said, page 248.” Rue repeated. Rayla moved her gaze to Callum, who looked at the book, intrigued but also doubtful. “This is going to explode in my face, isn’t it?” He said. 

“It’s not.” Said Rue. 

“I wouldn’t count on that.” Laughed Rayla as she remembered Callum’s first attempt at magic. 

“Why?” Asked Rue. 

“My first attempt at magic wasn’t the greatest,” Callum said. “Nobody’s first attempt is the greatest, especially when untrained,” Rue began. “Rayla, do you remember what my first attempt resulted in or were you too young to remember?” She continued.

“How can I not? You accidentally threw me in the air with rocks when you were trying to move a leaf.” Rayla exclaimed.

“How is it possible to do a spell so different from the original intent?” Callum asked with curiosity in his voice.

“I was very young at the time. I could barely pronounce words in general, let alone dragonic. I mispronounced a word in the spell and it backfired,” Rue said. “Rayla says you’re a quick learner, and you can learn alone. But you should still ask me how something is pronounced before you try the spell. Who knows what could happen.”

“We should stop so we can eat lunch anyway. I don’t know about you two, but I’m starving.” Rayla said. 

“We have enough food for now but we’ll run out tomorrow so we need to arrive in Rexora as fast as possible,” Rue mentioned “We can’t let them catch up to us. We need to protect Zym’s life at all costs!” She continued, thinking about the assassins that were after them. 

* * *

While Rayla was happily enjoying her moonberries, Callum was studying the pages intensely. “Callum, you need to eat. We’re not going to have a break for a while,” Rayla advised.

“I’m not hungry. I’m fine,” Callum responded. To his surprise, it wasn’t a lie. He _ was _ fine. A little shaken up by the encounter he had had with the assassins but for once in his life, he _ was _ fine.

He continued to study the book with precision. The spells were a lot to take in. He wasn't the best fighter to begin with. So, he'd have to ask Rayla what spells seemed most appropriate for combat. Although...he’d seen an interesting spell. A flight spell. He’d always wanted to fly. To move at speeds he couldn't comprehend. To breathe in the fresh air that gave him life. To see the world from above. How tiny everything looked. To be free. _ The sky’s the limit. Literally. _

As he was lost in thought, he realized he’d been staring at Rayla for the past few minutes.

“What are you staring at?” Rayla asked, eating a moonberry. 

“Uh I, I wasn’t staring _ at _ you. I was just lost in thought. I didn’t even realize you were there,” He apologized.

“Glad to know my presence is forgettable.” Rayla responded, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Callum didn’t seem to understand her joke as he began rambling. 

“I didn’t mean it like that. I will never forget you.” Rayla did not expect that response. He was a sweetheart, but they did not have time for feelings right now. 

“So now you’re saying I’m unforgettable?” Rayla asked confidently, though again, she was joking. Callum rubbed his fingers together, a look of embarrassment on his face. 

_ “You are...” _ he mumbled, not wanting Rayla to hear.

Unknown to Callum, Rayla actually heard him. She was flattered, of course, but she knew he didn’t mean it the way she wanted him to. And even if he did, it wouldn’t matter. They had a war to stop and assassins chasing after them. They could talk about her feelings after they got Zym back home safely. 

“I agree with Rayla. You should eat. You shouldn’t do magic on an empty stomach,” Rue began,“learned that from experience.” 

The three ate in silence. 

The silence was comforting, in a way. Rue began to enjoy the silence again, as she now had a distraction from the events of the previous day . The letters were the past. She shouldn’t focus on them, she should focus on the future. Rue would allow herself to be sad about them when she knew her group of misfits was safe. She would have enough time to uncover all of Tinker’s secrets after they returned Zym back home. The dragon prince was the priority.

Sure, teaching Callum how to be a mage was a great way of keeping himself and Zym safe. But it was also a way to distract herself from the secrets her family had been hiding all this time. Magic was an escape. And while she wasn’t sure how Skywing magic worked, it being the opposite of her own, she would still try to help as much as she could. _ Unlike how Tinker was too afraid to teach her. _

Meanwhile Rayla tried to forget the letters altogether. If she didn’t think back to her parents’ compassionate words, she could still blame them for running away. Keeping the idea that they’ve never loved her and Rue. That maybe even Ethari had been writing them himself to give them hope. But deep inside she knew it wasn’t true. The words were written in the special blue ink only the dragon guard possessed. Her mother’s handwriting was also the same from her birthday letters. But even if she knew they loved her, she could never forgive them. They had ran away. They were cowards. She was a daughter of cowards. Or at least that’s how she felt every time she walked through town before the mission. The townspeople looked at her as if she was to blame. 

Rue didn’t have to deal with that. Rue didn’t know what it was like. Or at least Rayla didn’t think so. She moved to a different town where nobody knew each other for her magical studies when she was fifteen. 

But what hurt the most was that Ethari had been the one who hid it from them. Rayla always trusted him more than Runaan. Where Runaan was strict, Ethari wasn’t. That’s how she had seen it all of her life. She was shocked to find out he had hidden the letters from them. Rue wasn’t surprised at all, which made sense because even if he wasn’t strict on her, he had always been strict on Rue. Rayla assumed it was a mage thing when she was younger but now she knew better. He hid that part of himself from her. So why should they be surprised that he had hidden other things from them as well?

Callum looked towards the pages as he ate. There were so many spells he wanted to try. Magic made him feel alive. It felt like it was what he was meant to do. He had always failed at most things that he had tried. But that was not going to happen now, not anymore. Magic was his thing, he was sure of it. He couldn’t fail. He had to succeed, and that wasn’t only for his ego. If he could defend himself, the mission would go better and if he learned to fight, he could help with the mission more than he already had.

When they finished, they decided they should train for a few hours. Afterwards they would travel until midnight. If they hadn’t reached Rexora yet, they would camp for the night and travel in the morning.

Rayla looked over Callum’s shoulder, at the spell book. “What do you think would be the best combat spell?” Callum asked as he looked up at Rayla. She inspected the text and spoke. “Well, I can see a spell that’ll make a tornado but I don’t think that would be the best for our situation. You already know that lighting spell so maybe you could try to learn a version of it that’s more advanced?” She didn’t know that much about magic so she was just thinking aloud. Rayla looked over at Rue for advice. 

“I think you need to learn how to dodge first. Which Rayla could teach you, while I try to figure out what spell would be the best one to start with,” Rue said.

“I know how to dodge.” Callum exclaimed. 

“Do ya?” Rayla said as she tried landing a surprise attack. He didn’t see her coming but he heard her steps. He moved to the side as Rayla stopped herself from lunging at the tree he was sitting under a few moments before. 

“Good.” She admitted. “But not good enough. In battle, as much as you can listen to where your opponent is, there are times where you can’t. You have to use all of your senses. Just in case you _ can’t _ use one of them.” 

They practiced dodging until Callum got the basics of it, which didn’t take long. Callum raised his voice. “What spell did you decide on?” He asked Rue. 

“I was thinking about a flight spell first. It could be used both in defense and in attack. It would be in your advantage. You could also help Zym learn afterwards,” She responded.

“Don’t I need wings to fly?” He asked. 

“No, most Skywing elves aren’t born with wings. Few learn how to use the spell to fly. But it’s worth a try. Rayla believes in you. And I trust her judgement.” Rue said.

“Manus, Pluma, Volantus!” Callum says looking at the page, reading it carefully. He closed his eyes. He doesn’t feel different, he assumes it’s because his illusion is helping him.

When he opened his eyes he looked at his arms in disappointment. What did he do wrong? Did he not do the spell correctly or does he just not have it in him?

“You’ll get it in time,” Rue said. “This spell is hard to do even for Skywings. Just because you can’t do this one spell, does not mean your arcanum is weak, or that you can’t control it. We need to start with easier spells. But I don’t want you to give up on this one. Magic is hard at first, it’s like this for every mage. Might be harder for you since you weren’t born with an arcanum. But that shouldn’t stop you from trying.”

”Rue’s right. You could have chosen to do dark magic but you didn’t, Callum. Even when the odds were against you, you didn’t give up on learning primal magic. You’ve come so far, you can’t give up now,” Rayla said. 

“Give me the book for a second,” said Rue. Callum handed her the spellbook. She turned the pages slowly looking for a spell Callum could try. Rue stopped at a page with two spells that seemed to be appropriate for battle, and at the same time easy enough so it wouldn’t be a problem for Callum to figure them out. Rue walked towards Callum’s side, gave him the book and pointed at the two spells. 

“The first spell is _ Nebula _ , it’s a defense spell that can fog up the surrounding area so your opponent can’t see where you are. It could be used to flee or to have the element of surprise when attacking,” Rue said. Callum listened. “The second one is _ Glacies Globus _ ** _. _ **It’s an attack spell. With it, you can throw blocks of hail at your opponent. Or at least that’s what the book says,” Rue laughed.

“I just hope I don’t screw it up or it doesn’t work,” Callum said. “It will be fine. I believe in you,” Rayla encouraged him.

Callum took the book into his hands. He backed away from the two and drew the rune. “Nebula!” he quietly said. He closed his eyes, ready for failure. When he found the courage to look around, he was surrounded by mist. He couldn’t see anything past his own body. The spell worked. He didn’t fail for once. But how could he use the spell without getting lost. He would have to figure it out. “I forgot to tell you,” He heard Rue’s voice. “If you want to undo this spell you have to say “contrarium” afterwards,” She said. 

“Nebula contarium!” Callum said. He still closed his eyes afraid it wouldn’t work, even if he’d successfully done the first spell. He was afraid he would fail again. That he wasn’t a good enough mage. Just like he had never been a good enough prince. But he still opened his eyes to see the fog had disappeared. 

* * *

“I knew you could do it, Callum.” Rayla said. Callum looked at her and smiled. He didn’t know how he had fallen for her but he knew why. Rayla had always been there for him and trusted him despite the fact that they should have been fighting each other. Instead, they found in each other someone who would always be there for them, a true friend. And in Callum’s case, someone he could love. He didn’t know how Rayla felt about him, but whatever it was, what he cared about was being close to her.

“Thank you…” He whispered. He didn’t know what else to say. 

Rayla didn’t respond. She didn’t know what to say. She was so proud of him and so happy that magic made him happy. She was happy for his happiness. Rayla knew how stupid it sounded but it was the truth. She loved him, but with the war that was approaching she couldn’t tell him. Not yet, at least. But she promised herself she would. When the time was right.

“I’ll try the other one out.” Callum told the two even if he felt like he couldn’t do it. He kept telling himself he wasn’t a good enough mage because he couldn’t do the flight spell correctly. It didn’t matter that he could do all these different spells. He felt as if he would never be a true mage if he didn’t learn to fly. Rue told him that most Skywings couldn’t fly, and as much as he now trusted her, he felt like she was lying to him about this in order not to hurt his feelings. 

He didn’t close his eyes this time. That would have just been a stupid decision. This was an attack spell. He didn’t want to hurt Rayla and if he accidentally attacked Rue, he would be as good as dead. Well… he would be dead in both situations, but he was still afraid of Rue. Callum walked near a tree. He held his hands in front of his body and drew the rune in the air. “_Glacies Globus!” _He said as he threw the hail in the tree’s direction. The ice hit the tree and got stuck in it. That...worked… he wasn’t failing. He hadn't failed at magic since his attempt at flying. He still didn’t feel like he was good enough of a mage, but at least he wasn’t terrible at it. 

* * *

Rayla heard a sound in the bushes. It wasn’t nighttime yet, and they were pretty close to Rexora. But they were taking a break. She turned her head and looked at her sister. Before Rue could understand, Rayla picked up her blades and headed in the direction of the sound. Callum understood. They were being followed, probably by the assassins. But he couldn’t let her head to battle alone. They were a team after all. 

He ran after her. Rayla held her blades high, ready to attack the two assassins. The two were trying to run away. It seemed like they didn’t plan on attacking them this time. 

Callum didn’t know what he was doing, but he did it anyway. He didn’t have time to think. Rayla was being irresponsible and it looked like she was looking to cause trouble. If they got in a fight with their rivals now, when Rue hadn't followed so she didn’t know that she needed to protect Zym. They could both end up hurt and afterwards the two assassins would find Zym and they would kill him. They needed to run away. Rexora wasn’t that far away anyways, and they would be safe there, from what the two sisters told him.

“Manus, Pluma, Volantus!” He said. Callum felt his fake wings, his fake skywing appearance for the first time. And that was because it wasn’t fake. He actually had wings. He could fly now. But there was no time to be proud of himself. Callum had to stop Rayla from doing something they all would regret. 

The two were clearly not going to attack now, as they were walking away from the trio. He looked in Rayla’s direction, who was trying to catch up to the two assassins. He tried to fly. It was working... He grabbed Rayla by the hand and lifted her off the ground. She was going to be so pissed at him, but he didn’t care. The two assassins ran out of sight.

“I’m flying, Rayla! I’m flying!” Callum exclaimed. But as he was becoming proud of himself for figuring out the spell, he felt his wings becoming weak as he didn’t really know how to use them, he fell to the ground, taking Rayla with him. Callum opened his eyes and observed that his spell had worn off. He couldn’t feel his wings anymore. Callum could also see that he and Rayla fell onto a bush._ “At least it makes sense why we’re alive, given that we fell from about two meters up” _Callum thought. He also realized something else. He was holding Rayla and she was holding him back. It wasn’t unusual for their close bond, but the difference now was that they had just fallen from the sky. Which _was_ his fault. Callum knew he was a dead _human_. Not only did he set Rayla back from what she was planning to do, but the spell failed and they both could have gotten hurt. He loved her, but he also knew she was a trained assassin. If she wanted to, she could kill him for doing this. He just hoped she wasn't **_that_** upset.

Rayla was going to catch the two assassins and let them know their place after messing with her family, and she wasn’t only talking about Rue. She cared about Callum and Zym just as much, and if someone tried to hurt any of them, they’d have to deal with her. That’s exactly what they did. 

But, she didn’t catch them. Someone took her hand, and two seconds later, she was flying. Someone was close to her and they were hugging her while in the air. She heard Callum’s voice close to her but she didn’t understand what he was saying. Next thing she knew, they fell to the ground. She opened her eyes to see Callum hugging her. Rayla loved her human but she was pissed._ How could he do this? Exactly when she had them close! _

“If it wasn’t totally unethical, I would definitely blackmail you with this.” Rayla heard a voice say. She looked up to see her older sister staring at them, with Zym in her arms. 

“Because you’re the shining beacon of ethics, right?” Rayla said with a tone of sarcasm. She got up and helped Callum up. She was too overwhelmed by all of this happening at once to lecture Callum about how he shouldn’t do that again. No matter how much she cared about him, he needed to know he shouldn’t ever make a plan without telling anyone. Maybe she was being a bit hypocritical. 

She could admit that. She sighed. Her decision was rushed and she should have been more responsible. But that didn’t mean he was allowed to take her on a flight unannounced!

“Callum, you did the spell!” Rayla exclaimed, piecing together what had happened. She couldn’t be mad at him for long, could she? “And it wore off in seconds and we fell… I’m sorry.” Callum said. 

“It’s fine. We weren’t hurt. And I’m so proud of you.” Rayla said.

“But I-” Callum tried to apologize. “Callum, it’s alright. I’m not mad at you. Just tell me next time you want to take me for a flight, okay?” Rayla said. 

“Idiots in love...” Rue whispered to herself.

As they continued towards Rexora, Callum was still upset over his failed spell. “You could say thank you for distracting Rayla so she wouldn’t kill you.” Rue laughed. Callum stayed silent. He looked down at his feet while he walked.

“What’s with the frowny face?“ Rue asked. Callum looked towards his wings, his_ fake _wings. Rue understood what this was all about. “Magic takes time.” She said. He remained silent. "Even for elves. It's not your fault." She tried to reassure him.

For her sister's sake, if for nothing else. Truth be told, Callum reminded her of her younger self. Being disappointed in yourself when you just couldn't get a spell right. If she'd learnt anything at the academy it's that it takes self love to fail without bringing yourself down. Callum sighed quietly and continued walking. "If you're worried that Rayla's disappointed in you or mad at you, I can assure you that not true." Rue said.

“I’m fine, I just need some quiet time. I understand that it will take time to learn.” Callum decided to say. Magic might take him more time to master than he expected but he couldn’t give up. 

* * *

When Solana saw Rayla approaching them, she ran. Daylor followed. “What’s wrong?” He asked as he kept on running through the woods.

Solana looked back, seeing that Rayla wasn’t following them anymore. She stopped in her tracks and took a deep breath. “Rayla. She saw us and wanted to attack. We weren’t ready for a battle so the only logical course of action was to run. Sorry I didn’t tell you.” Solana explained. 

“Do you think she’s still after us?” Daylor asked. 

“Probably not. It seems like something pulled her back.” Solana observed. 

“In any case, we should head to Rexora. We need to get there before they do. We might have to do some haggling for the potions, Rexora’s an expensive place and even if Tinker gave us a small fortune, it won’t be enough.” Daylor said. 

“Do you think we could- no that’s a dumb idea.” Solana said out loud. 

“What’s a dumb idea?” Daylor asked. 

“It’s a small fortune, right? Even if it's not as much as we were promised. We could keep it and run to some part of Xadia where no one would find us. Or better yet, use the illusions to our advantage, if they’re permanent. We could go anywhere and could work anything and we wouldn’t have to hide.” Soalana said.

“If only it were that easy,” Daylor laughed. “We agreed to this mission and Tinker isn’t one to mess with. We could both end up dead.” 

“I told you it was a stupid idea.” Solana laughed. 

“That you did.”

Solana sighed. “Sometimes I wish it was easier. Or that we hadn't made the mistake to work with humans. We were children who didn’t know any better. And because of our childishness, our whole lives are ruined. We have to work in the dark market for a living. There’s so much blood on my hands I can never erase. We’ve killed so many just to survive.” They walked as she continued talking.

“All because of a stupid mistake we made when we were fourteen. We should have never worked with Viren and his stupid family. If you could even call that a family. We have to kill the dragon prince so we can live. Even with my mantra of _‘What happens in Katolis, stays in Katolis’_ I sometimes think back. Taking this mission might have been a bigger mistake than our first. I feel like I’m growing into all the parts of Claudia I now hate. This isn’t right, and I can’t imagine myself killing the dragon prince, for what essentially is, power, like how Claudia was so obsessed with dark magic. Reason why even if she had not betrayed us, it would have never worked out, as it was one sided. And now I feel like I’m becoming her, the worst sides of her.” Solana let it all go at once. 

Daylor listened, he always did. Their friendship and companionship was one of the only things that kept the other sane.

Daylor placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “You’re nothing like her. She kills because of her own selfish reason, you do because you have no other choice.” 

“But I do have a choice — did have a choice. I shouldn’t have accepted the mission. But here we are. And it’s too late now. I was selfish. I’m putting both of us in danger. I always have. I was the one to come up with the idea of the missions in Katolis. And I was too blinded by my admiration for her to see that they were all using us. I didn’t expect them to turn on us so easily. And look where we are now. I destroyed your life too.”

“You didn’t destroy anything. Sure, our lives would have been easier, simpler, but you can’t dwell on a decision you made when we were kids. As you said yourself, we were just kids. Rebellious kids, sure, but kids nonetheless. We couldn’t distinguish between right and wrong. We made mistakes. But I will never blame you for it. It’s as much blame on you as it is on me. We’ve learnt many things along the way. But look on the bright side, after this mission we could go somewhere else, maybe there’s some place where our posters haven’t been hung up. Stop with the dark market deals.”

“Are you even hearing yourself? We’ve lived in half of Xadia for the past two years and they all knew who we were and we had to run away every time.” Solana said.

“Nothing will ever make the guilt I’ll have for killing a dragon, a baby dragon, for goodness's sake. If I’ve always felt bad about killing my own, I can’t imagine how it will be when I kill the future leader and all the hope of Xadia.” She sighed.

“Then you don’t have to. I’ll do it. We’re a team after all, and if you can’t carry that burden with you, I’ll carry it for you, no matter how heavy.” Daylor tried to help out his friend.

“Daylor, that would make me feel two times worse. I agreed to the mission, I’m the one who has to do it.” Solana said with a serious tone in her voice.

“Can’t you reconsider that?” Daylor asked.

“No,” Solana responded.

“Fine, fine.” Daylor said as they continued walking. 

“We must be careful in Rexora. Don’t want anyone finding us before we can finish the mission.” Solana changed the subject.

“We haven’t visited Rexora since — How long has it been? A year? A year and a half?”

“It doesn’t matter, Daylor. We need to be careful, they could recognize us.” Solana raised her voice.

“I don’t think they will. Those posters were made when we were fourteen, almost fifteen. It’s been two years, I don’t think we look the same as we did when we were younger, do you?” Daylor asked. 

“Well, we’re both way taller...” Solana said but internialy she knew many things that were different. The blood on their hands had always been there but there were other things, physical things that were different because of it. Like the scar on the back of her neck from the time they were almost caught during a mission and a rival threw his sword at her head but she dogged just in time. Or the time they had to run through the midnight dessert to escape, they avoided being bit but when they ran out of there they fell in a hole near the wall. Daylor broke his nose and they think she fractured her wrist that time. The dark circles around their eyes from sleepless nights during missions also distinguished them from their younger selves.

“Solana.” Daylor yelled to get her attention. “What?” Solana suddenly realized they were at the gates of Rexora. “Let’s get this over with.” She said.

  
  



End file.
